"United Breaks Guitars"

“United Breaks Guitars”

The story of Dave Carroll and his YouTube hit, “United Breaks Guitars” is one for the books. The story is quite simple. Dave Carroll, a rising country singer was flying United Airlines with his band when they noticed their guitars were being thrown on the tarmac. Stuck in the airplane, they watched in horror as Dave Carroll’s guitar in particular received the brute of the tossing. Dave Carroll addressed the issue to the airline, but received no compensation for a few logistical matters.

As talked about in class, this is a major public relations opportunity for United Airlines, to which I think they failed. The dilemma was whether United should replace the guitar or simple let the issue be and stick it to Dave Carroll for not paying to insure the guitar? United Airlines struck it to Dave for over a year! Finally Dave offered one last ultimatum to replace his guitar or he would release his new song on YouTube, “United Breaks Guitars,” but United Airlines didn’t budge.

The song was released, viewed by millions and become a YouTube hit. In less than 4 days United Airlines lost over 1.6 million dollars through their stocks and other sources. In a desperate effort to make up for their guitar incident United Airlines offered to pay for a new guitar.

My reaction to this whole case is a simple chuckle to myself and the idea running through my mind, “What was United Airlines thinking?” I am a firm believer in 100% customer satisfaction. Along with that, integrity is a huge part of a company building loyal customers with which both seemed close to non-existent with United Airlines.  I understand how it can be a pain for a company to bite the bullet sometimes, but that bullet won’t come back to shoot them in the foot later on if they do. In This case United Airlines lost over a million dollars. Given there is no direct proof that it was directly correlated to the song being released, but experts have agreed that it is more than likely connected.

I feel that United Airlines were not thinking long term and were definitely not thinking about the customer in this situation, but were simply thinking about their own pocket book. It is a joking matter how then after a year the airline then tried to pay for Dave’s guitar! I have observed children react in a similar fashion, they are not sorry until they know they are about to get in trouble and then they insincerely throw out an apology as if to save their own face. Children can act like children, but a multi-million dollar company who operates all around the world? I hold a different expectation then childish behavior.

Dave Carroll handled the situation very well in my opinion. He was not trying to defame or damage the reputation of United Airlines, but in a rather creative and talented way, he told his story and the public liked his side of it.