United Breaks Guitars

[waynesan]

Dave Carroll is a musician who flew on United and the Airline broke his Taylor Guitar. He tried to get them to replace it but they would not. So he decided to give them a lot of free publicity by writing a song and making a video about what happened. I heard on the radio yesterday that United has tried to get him to take his video off youtube and they would replace his guitar, but the Taylor Guitar folks have already given him several new guitars and he has over 6 million hits of people watching his video.

[TNblues]

yeah, I remember see this. Those Taylor guitar are nice nas $$$$,

I love that, he's siticking to the Man

[Motasyco]

+1

[TripleDigitRide]

He seems to be a real classy guy. Not sure I could have been so kind.

[Bubba0031]

I wonder when this actually happend (how long ago) and if it got the guy an appearance on Leno, Letterman or SNL. That's a hoot.

[-boatman-]

I love it. You know United was surprised and not expecting that video but it was too late by then.

[buck1032]

Bubba,

This is a cut and paste from You Tube about the story.

Full Story: http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/story... - In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didnt deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) 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. Follow me at http://twitter.com/DaveCarroll . Video Produced by Curve Productions of Halifax, http://www.curveproductionsinc.com.

[Bubba0031]

Buck, thanks for the link. I enjoyed reading his story. Clearly a talented guy.

[Volzfan]

6,926,553 views on Youtube as of just now. I'm sure that he is enjoying every hit and United is probably realizing now how cheap it would have been to replace the guitar.

[56FordGuy]

I just watched this last night. The local radio station has been running segments of the Boortz (maybe I spelled that right) show, and he mentioned it. Awesome story, and the song has actually been stuck in my head since I saw the video.

[Guest Jcochran88]

6,926,553 views on Youtube as of just now. I'm sure that he is enjoying every hit and United is probably realizing now how cheap it would have been to replace the guitar.

Do you think it really matters. How many people won't fly with united because of this.

[Guest bkelm18]

Honestly, this wont stop me from flying United or any other airline. The dude had to have known the risks involved when he packed his guitar and checked it. Is it United's policy not to compensate for things broken during handling? I would guess it is.

[Guest jackdm3]

Isn't there an insurance option? (not talking Obamacare)

[Currently]

Actually brought a tear of joy to my eyes!

That has got to be the classiest case of revenge I ever saw.

United breaks Taylor Guitars! :rockon:

EDIT: That sig right above my post ... Beware the fury of a patient man. SO TRUE!

[Guest Tiny G]

Do you think it really matters. How many people won't fly with united because of this.

The 10's of thousands of musician flights that happen every year on their airline. You don't turn down paying gigs and flying there is usually the best option.

[VERO1]

As a former baggage slinger, all I can say is ,"sucks, but you should have gotten a better case!" All airlines baggage liability info and insurance policies are easily found. It is the passengers decision to accept them or not.

Just out of curiosity, Wonder how many videos he has made when his guitars arrived safely and undamaged?

[Guest Jcochran88]

This isn't going to stop you from flying UNITED ???? As long as you save a little $$$ you'll fly UNITED !!!

No, do you actually think that this is the only airline that does this?

I try to fly south west but when they don't fly there I usually pick the cheapest just like 99% of the rest.

[Guest grimel]

The AIRLINES do toss your bags, they fall off the carts, The bins in the airplane can be 20 feet long, do you think the ramp agent is going to gently carry your bag 20 feet to returned, to pick up the next one, & carry all 100 bags nice & gently ??? NO !!! He's going to throw it, to the other guy, who is going to stack it on top of the first bag, we go 4 bags high, If your bag is the first one you'll have the weight of 3 bags on top of your bag. JUST BEING HONEST

Then the airlines get to pay for what they break. Just being honest and using a bit of common sense.

[Guest grimel]

Do you think it really matters. How many people won't fly with united because of this.

Considering I won't fly Delta if there is ANY other flight going to my destination and I can NOT drive because of Delta's attitude and "policies" from me missing my connecting flight home due to Delta's incompetence, rudeness, and following stupidity I'd say a few.

If this guy just makes 12 flights a year (not unreasonable for a Canadian musician playing in the US) United is out more than the cost of fixing/replacing the Taylor just in lost business from this guy & his band.

[mk19]

United does suck, so does Delta. In 07 i went to Canada for my cousin's wedding and they lost half of my luggage (the part with my Suit in it ), after telling them that i'm going to make a video about the incendent and putting it on Youtube, they agreed to buy me a new suit, which I could wear at the wedding. Horrible experience.

[Guest Ghostrider]

I fly 40 or more weeks a year. Please permit me to make a few observations.

1. United sucks dogbutt.

2. USAir will never be on time and will cancel a flight right out from under you (it's always an act of God, he must keep busy with them) and it's your tough luck, sleep in a chair.

3. American is right behind 1 & 2.

4. Delta doesn't get a mention because I haven't had to deal with them since 9/11 - just lucky, I guess.

5. Frontier sucks dogbutt.

6. Continential will NEVER leave on time, but their connecting flights are always at least 20 mins late - so add 20 to 30 mins to each depart and arrival time and you're pretty much on time (on that schedule). Most of my flights with them have been RJs to Texas. Their airport terminal bathroom maint. is none existent. Like doing your business in an outhouse, or worse.

7. SouthWest has some dip **** people working for them, but they are the best of the worst, by far. If you travel with them as much as I do, you get A listed and then you will almost always be in the first 30 to get on, pick a seat and enjoy. I've taken a cursory look at their business model and they are forever tweaking their schedules and flights. (every 90 days) to gets the most butts in seats They "turn" the planes quicker than every other airline because of open seating and their boarding process (plus the crews clean their own airplanes - so you don't wait 30 minutes for American to find a cleaning crew to smear a dirty mop on the galley floor and throw the trash into the seat pockets where they "didn't see it". All pilots and crews, and most parts, are interchangeable because they are all 737s of the 300 500 and 700 series. The 500s are just about out of fleet service life and while the 700s are "glass" cockpits, they have configured and locked them into the "steam gauge" config so that no different pilot or crew quals are needed to fly any of the aircraft. Most of the parts are interchangeable between models so spares are seldom a problem. But they do have some STUPID employees.

Finally, as an off topic - Nashville has the 2nd nastiest bathrooms in all the places I've been = throughout the airport. They are second only to Houston's Continental terminal. Conversely, Chicago Ohare has about the cleanest bathrooms in the country, I'd give Oakland second place.