A Patente Petrobras

[pic 1]

---

United Breaks Guitars

Case Study Summary

In 2008 United Airlines baggage handlers allegedly smashed Dave Carroll’s $3,500 Taylor guitar in Chicago, a layover city on the way to a tour stop in Omaha for his band, the Sons of Maxwell. The situation was witnessed by two other passengers looking out the aircraft windows as the baggage was being loaded on the plane. Mr. Carroll immediately alerted three different United flight attendants who showed complete indifference towards him when he raised the matter in Chicago and was told to speak with the crew at his final destination. [pic 2]

Upon arriving in Omaha after midnight, there was no United crew around to discuss the situation, and Mr. Carroll ended up deciding to deal with it later because there was no visible external damage to the guitar case. It was not until the following day that he realized the extent of the damage to his guitar which included a broken and detached neck. Thus a 9-month long battle with United Airlines began.

United policy requires customers to report claims within 24 hours of the flight, but Carroll was miles away on tour unable to make the claim at an airport. After nine months of back and forth fruitless negotiations via email, the situation eventually escalated and ended in a phone call from a customer services supervisor named Ms. Irlweg. She targeted the "flawed policies" that she was forced to uphold, and no compensation or apology for the $3,500 guitar would be provided.

Carroll decided on a new course of action. He was going to make three music videos, aiming to attract one million hits in total and share his experience. After the 4th of July in 2009, Carroll and his band uploaded the first video, United Breaks Guitars, on YouTube describing United’s awful baggage handling of his guitar and how United handled this situation.

Well the song was a hit, getting 150,000 views in the first 24 hours, and amassing over twenty million views as of October 2020. Two additional songs were subsequently released that continue the story:

United Breaks Guitars – Song 2

United Breaks Guitars – Song 3

In total, all 3 songs have gotten nearly 25 million views in total along with discussions on late-night shows and most major media channels like CNN, FOX, and CNBC.