How a musician tanked United Airlines stock after it refused to pay for his broken guitar

Dealing with customer service can be frustrating enough to make you want to give up. But one musician had a legendary response to his unresolved complaint. Dave Carroll, a musician, wrote a diss track after United Airlines allegedly broke his guitar by mishandling it. His video went viral, causing significant damage to the airline's reputation and bottom line, as viewers worldwide rallied around his story. The video not only "broke the internet" back then, but it’s still making the rounds today. According to Marketplace.org, it even pushed companies to rethink how they handle customer service.

Several news outlets reported that within five days of Carroll posting his video, United Airlines’ stock dropped by 10%. His song, "United Breaks Guitars," details his frustrating experience with the airline. Carroll explains that while flying from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Omaha, Nebraska, with his band "Sons of Maxwell," he saw United crew members mishandling his guitar. “When we got to Chicago to deplane and catch our connector,” Carroll said, “a woman behind our bass player looked out the window and said: ‘Oh my God, they’re throwing guitars outside.’” Despite reaching out to customer service at O'Hare, Carroll was brushed off.

When the musician reached Omaha his worst fears came true when he opened his guitar case. His Taylor guitar, worth $3500, was badly damaged. The musician had saved for quite some time to get the guitar, only to have it broken. As it was late at night when the incident happened there was no one at the service desk but there was a customer service helpline number. From there, the musician tried to reach out to them for over nine months but his call bounced from department to department with no clear answers. He was even told that he'd need to file a complaint in person in O'Hare even though he lived several miles away and wouldn't be able to make it. He also found a repair shop that agreed to fix his guitar for $1200. But when he eventually managed to speak to a representative from the airline to pay for his guitar's repairs, the person told him that he was too late and should have filed the complaint the next day. 

Frustrated by his experience the musician wrote three songs narrating his experience with the help of friends and musicians to create a video. The video garnered over 19 million views on the internet and changed the way the airline tackled customer service. As per Inc., the incident is considered to be the biggest PR disaster of the decade. Eventually, the airline reached out to Caroll to pay for $1200 and the musician's track became a manual for everyone on how to communicate effectively with customers. As per the outlet, the airline even went the extra mile to help a passenger in 2013 by delaying a connector flight so this person could meet their ailing mother. 

This article originally appeared six months ago.