United Breaks Guitars
In case you have yet to see it, here's Halifax singer-songwriter Dave Carroll's YouTube vid:
Chris Ayres, the Times of London L.A. correspondent, blogs about Carroll's unfortunate experience with United Airlines' "customer service" types.
If there's one person in America who you wouldn't want to be right now, it is Ms Irlweg. Her full name remains a mystery. All we know is that she lives in the Chicago area, works for the customer relations department of United Airlines, and will soon become the subject of a new country and western music video, which will be posted at some point over the next week or two on YouTube.It's unlikely to be flattering.
You see, several months ago, Ms Irlweg had the misfortune of handling a passenger complaint from a man named Dave Carroll, who happens to be a Canadian musician with a lethally dry sense of humour. Carroll had been flying on United when he saw baggage handlers throwing around his guitar case on the tarmac outside, and when he arrived at his destination, it turned out that the neck of his beloved $3,500 Taylor six-string had been snapped. But when he asked for compensation, he was fobbed off by department after department, until finally he reached Ms Irlweg, who at least gave him a straight answer.
"No."
"Fine," he said to her, "But I'm going to write three songs about my experience with your airline, shoot videos for each of them, and then post them online." Yeah, right, she must have been thinking.
But Carroll kept his promise. The first song, United Breaks Guitars, has now been played 3,515,357 times on YouTube, become a smash hit on iTunes, and has resulted in Carroll's rather bemused appearance on every major news network in America. Meanwhile, within four days of the song going online, the gathering thunderclouds of bad PR caused United Airlines' stock price to suffer a mid-flight stall, and it plunged by 10 per cent, costing shareholders $180 million. Which, incidentally, would have bought Carroll more than 51,000 replacement guitars.
Did this actually cause their stock to plunge? Who knows. Regardless, I'd like to see more of this sort of thing -- when companies behave badly, people putting the word out...virally.
The really great rock stars all have stories about wonderful instruments lost to airlines. Steve Howe lost an old Martin, and FZ lost this gorgeous number.
Crid [CridComment@gmail] at July 26, 2009 12:44 AM
This is why I love internet. Who knew that, ten years ago, a single music video could affect a large company like United Airways?
I remember the "Big Brother" craze of the '90 but I never dreamed to see such a power held by the common folk. Such a wonderful thing...
Toubrouk at July 26, 2009 10:03 AM
> This is why I love internet.
Word.
Cosh:
The web, as we all know, is a place that equips almost everyone on Earth with realtime publishing capabilities undreamed of, even a few years ago, by the mightiest giants of the corporate media.
And Reason's Walker on overblown news-anchor mourning:
Cronkite's influence was a product of the three-network era, a time we should be happy to have put behind us.
Crid [CridComment@gmail] at July 26, 2009 12:53 PM
This brought to mind a song by Tom Paxton from many years ago -- Thank You Republic Airlines
Flying through the Michigan skies
with a song in my innocent heart
I placed myself in professional hands
Masters of the traveler's art
When I opened my guitar case
at the end of a beautiful flight
I'm sure you can imagine my feelings
as I beheld this beautiful sight
Thank you Republic Airlines
for breaking the neck on my guitar
Of course Republic Airlines is now a faint memory. ;-)
Jim P. at July 26, 2009 5:43 PM
As a frequent flyer (60k miles flown this year so far, and all with United), I am a lot of airports. During a long layover, I found a private corner of the airport to sprawl out and kill time. Out the window I saw some baggage handlers doing their jobs. Their job descriptions should read, "apathy in approach to your job and a visceral dislike of luggage". The handling of the luggage was bordering on violent.
TW at July 27, 2009 1:32 AM
I feel sorry for Ms. Irlweg. Ms. Irlweg has been catching grief for the actions of others. I mean it would seem her job is to say no and she did it.
I wonder about the baggage handlers. I would think purposely breaking a guitar would be a crime. Please don't tell me they are that stupid they didn't realize throwing a guitar wouldn't break it. Why isn't anyone screaming about them? Luggage handlers often put me in mind of the old commercial with the gorilla and the suitcase. Except the gorilla is probably more careful.
I think if people really read the luggage agreements they wouldn't bring anything they couldn't carry themselves. There are so many limitations and exclusions to make it almost useless. Honestly folks start waking up and paying attention.
JD at July 27, 2009 8:33 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2009/07/26/united_breaks_g.html#comment-1659963">comment from JDI think there are some people who say no because they don't feel like going through the rigamarole it would take to get a yes. I've experienced this at big companies. You ask one person for something and they tell you it absolutely can't be done, and then somebody else just goes and asks permission for you and gets a yes.
Amy Alkon at July 27, 2009 8:35 AM
United has a reputation to uphold -- otherwise the Untied Website would go out of business. ;-)
Jim P. at July 27, 2009 11:27 AM
"FZ lost this gorgeous number"
I had the SG ('72 with a Bigsby, actually) - but no matter how I yelled at it, it wouldn't play like Frank.
Obviously, it was a lemon.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at July 28, 2009 12:24 PM
Leave a comment