If you haven’t seen this attack video yet, you will soon. In fact, you may want to show it to your service reps as a warning of what can go wrong if you don’t treat customers with respect.
The latest YouTube viral sensation is a song, called “United Breaks Guitars,” made by musician Dave Carroll. No points for guessing which airline’s service is being satirized and attacked in the video, which was viewed 2.5 million times within five days of being posted. As of posting, it had 2,791,539 million views.
See it here:
Here’s what happened in this case.
In the spring of 2008, Carroll’s band, Sons of Maxwell, was traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour. Passengers on the United flight with Carroll saw his $3,500 Taylor guitar being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago, severely damaging the guitar.
In the months that followed, United didn’t deny that the guitar had been damaged, says Carroll. But everyone passed the buck, and refused to compensate him.
After nine months of frustration, Carroll decided to air his complaint to the public, via YouTube.
“I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise,” he said.
Carroll’s tactic worked. United quickly offered damages, apologized, and promised to use Carroll’s video in training sessions for its reps.
Despite United’s apology, and offer of compensation (which Carroll wants United to donate to charity), Carroll is pushing ahead with plans for the next two videos. Next time, United may apologize sooner rather than later.
Update: Now the Huffington Post reports that this video has cost United 10% of its market share. Chris Ayres of The Times Online in the U.K. In a column earlier this week, Ayres claimed the Carroll mishap actually cost United $180 million, or 10 percent of its market cap. Ouch.
Julie Power is editor in chief of the Internet Marketing Report and its accompanying blog, www.eIMR.blogspot.com.
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Tags: Customer service, Dave Carroll, Sons of Maxwell, United Airlines, United Breaks Guitars, YouTube
July 21st, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Wow—and it was a Taylor guitar…now united can be accused of breaking hearts too, mine sure is….IT WAS A TAYLOR
Nice work united…and nice video by the victim, my new hero!
August 5th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Bye Bye United. You’ve officially lost my business. Hello Delta and Air Tran. I travel for business on a weekly basis and will be sure to pass along this video.
Regards,
Angie
August 5th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
It now has had 4,676,438 views! Amazing. It does help that it is such a catchy song. I wonder how many people will feel as strongly as Angie. Thanks for your comment!
October 27th, 2009 at 6:03 am
[...] United Airlines’ passenger Dave Carroll, whose song about how United broke his guitar has been viewed 5.6 million times on YouTube since it was posted three months [...]
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
i fly 100k plus miles per year, for over 25 years. United has always had the worst customer service, gate agents, flight attendents, baggage claim, etc.. Its great someone has fianlly crystalized my frustration!!
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all complain so elegantly? Dave really does it in style.