Dave Carroll, a country music singer, witnessed his $3500 Taylor guitar being thrown around by United Airlines baggage handlers at the Chicago airport. Carroll later discovered that his guitar was “severely damaged.” When Carroll tried to contact United Airlines about his situation, United didn’t deny that it happened, but they would not take the blame for it. Carroll diligently tried to get compensated for his guitar, but in the end, United’s answer was still a firm no.
Almost a year after his guitar was damaged by United, Carroll decided to write a song and make a video to post on YouTube about his experience with United. Carroll has posted three videos about his ongoing battle with United. Carroll’s first video has now been viewed over 7 million times by the public. “United Breaks Guitars” is said to be the cause of millions of dollars lost for United Airlines who eventually compensated Carroll by donating music education to underprivileged children in Carroll’s name.
After watching the YouTube video, “United Breaks Guitars” by Dave Carroll, I can clearly see that Carroll was determined to damage United Airlines reputation and succeeded. Although posting a video about his experience with United was creative and effective, Carroll might have crossed the line and went slightly overboard. I do believe his claims and find his YouTube postings to be clever and witty, but it’s hard to know if Carroll did it mostly for a publicity stunt. If this is the case, he did an excellent job at becoming famous almost overnight. I do have to give him credit for having the guts to stand up to such a large company without knowing what the consequences would be though.
On the other hand, United Airlines clearly did the most wrong in this situation, which ended up costing them money and their reputation. First of all, United obviously demonstrated extremely poor customer service, which was surprising for a large airline, by not taking the blame for Carroll’s damaged guitar. Because of this, United threw out any good reputation they had in their customer service department. Also, witnesses did claim that United baggage handlers were being careless while transporting passenger’s luggage. Hopefully, United has investigated this and made appropriate changes so it won’t happen as often.
From a PR standpoint, United Airlines did a horrible job in fixing a simple problem. They made a customer unhappy, and it caused them to lose their good name. While in a crisis, United cracked under pressure and Dave Carroll came out as the winner. In the end, United did do a good job at sugarcoating their mistake by saying that their company has made changes and money has been donated from them to a charity in Dave Carroll’s name. Overall, it’s amazing how big of an effect one person can have using social media. It’s a little scary if you think about it, but it could also be used for a lot of good.
Very well written and professional sounding. I like that you had background in the beginning and then went into how the situation was handled. I like the personal touches you made, but make sure you don't sound to casual when your trying to be professional in your writing. Excellent job!
ReplyDeleteI like the insight you had an the possible motives that dave carroll may have intended with the songs he wrote. Good job
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