Broken Guitars and Broken Reputaions

A little over a year ago, Dave Carroll boarded a United Airlines flight from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Chicago, Illinois. A traveling musician, Carroll was raveling for a tour in Nebraska with his band. After his attention was captured by the remarks of a fellow passenger while waiting for the plane to take off, Dave saw in horror as his guitar, a $3,500 Taylor guitar, was tossed from one baggage handler to the other. Upon arrival at his destination in Nebraska, Dave inspected his guitar to find that it had been damaged enough to destroy the sound of the guitar. After a year of correspondence with different members of the United company, as well as United’s partner in Canada, Carroll received nothing but a run around from both. On his final interaction with United, he was told that his claim was going nowhere and the reparations for his damaged guitar was in no way the responsibility of United Airlines. Carroll’s reply was that as a singer/songwriter he would write a song and put it on the internet so that he whole world would see it. The video of his song United Breaks Guitars became an overnight YouTube sensation with over 2 million views in only a few days.

I find myself relating to both parties in this dispute. As a person who has worked for several years in customer service, I understand how it feels to be the target of an angry customers frustration. Usually because of procedures and regulations that the company has that binds the agent of the company that the customer may or may not understand. On Carroll’s web site, he expressed the several different occasions that agents told him that in order for his claim to looked at it must be filed with the proper place and time. From the company’s point of view it is easy to understand that before they put up thousands of dollars to repair a guitar of a customer that they maybe saw $100 of profit from his ticket without ensuring that the guitar was damaged at the companies negligence. Also in comments from both a Los Angeles Times article, and from the YouTube video, there maybe some question as to the case that the guitar was stored in. Common sense would dictate that if an expensive guitar is going to travel with you, it would be stores in a hard sided travel case. If a fragile item is stored incorrectly, then it cannot be expected of the company to be responsible for damage incurred to the item if it could have been prevented by proper storage.
Now I am not completely insensitive to Carroll’s experience. The number one rule to good customer service is that there are always exceptions. Carroll, according to his website, made it clear to United that the guitar was a very expensive guitar that had sentimental value. That as well as the value of the guitar I would think would be enough to draw attention from a high enough authority that could authorize reparations to be made. From interviews and other publications on the matter it would seem Carroll is an understanding individual that could be easy to please and that any attempt to make the matter right from United would be acceptable. Instead of any attempt to make things right, United sent him from one agent to another and made no attempt to honor his claim. This would be understandably frustrating. It would be reasonable to think that a company the magnitude of United Airlines would have to the ability to give $1,200 in flight vouchers to cover the cost of the repairs.
I feel a bit of bias because of my work experience in this field. If the guitar wasn’t packed properly and claims were not made in a manner that the damage could be verified that it did indeed occur while under United’s watch, it seems unreasonable to take responsibility for the damage. However, the good of the company has to be kept in mind. A replaced guitar, although it be an expensive one, is an acceptable loss to create a customer that will promote United Airlines for life. Instead of a relatively small loss to create a very happy customer, United now faces millions of people afraid to check baggage with their flights, not to mention the damage to their reputation in customer relations. In an industry notorious for poor customer service, what better way to stand out than to have die hard believers in your company because of a few great customer experiences?