United makes nice, but guitarist’s YouTube songs will go on
Dave Carroll, the songwriter whose bouncy tale of damaged six-string baggage has been lighting up YouTube and tweaking United Airlines for the last two days, is declaring victory. And astonishment.
He doesn’t want any money from United, the 41-year-old Nova Scotia singer-songwriter says, even though he wound up paying $1,200 to repair damages suffered by his guitar on a spring 2008 series of flights from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Omaha, Neb. And he’s still trying to fathom the web-media explosion that brought his case to the world’s attention.
“Any day you’re on Wolf Blitzer’s screen in ‘The Situation Room,’ it’s a big day,” said Carroll late Wednesday, winding down after a medley of interviews.
His transformation from disgruntled flier to fractured-baggage troubadour began in November. That’s when, after months of failed efforts to get help from United, Carroll had his “Michael Moore moment” and resolved to write not one but three complaint songs, make videos, then distribute them on the Web. About that time, Carroll says, he gave up on getting anything from the airline and focused on transforming the experience instead.
He uploaded the first song, “United Breaks Guitars,” near midnight on July 6, drawing about six hits in the first hour, “and I think five of them were mine.” Now, with the YouTube tally somewhere north of 150,000 views and his countrified, harmony-laden tune being touted all over, Carroll says, he’s beyond satisfied.
In fact, when a United representative called Wednesday morning in a bid to make amends, Carroll says, he asked a friend to take the call and explain that he had no demands. His new message to United, he says, is “No hard feelings.”
But be advised, United. The second part of his trilogy, already written, will come out in mid-August. It focuses on his relationship with a customer service representative named Ms. Irlweg, he says, and it’s the first song he’s ever written with a tuba in it.
Be very afraid, United.
Carroll also filled in these details to his story:
- His guitar, a Taylor acoustic, was in a hard case on the trip in question. “I’d flown with it 50 times, took it to China, no issues at all. I’d even had a case built to protect the case. It zipped around it and was made of a foamy nylon exterior.” Yet between Halifax and Omaha, it got damaged - and one of his band mates in the Sons of Maxwell believes he saw it happen on the tarmac in Chicago.
- The song and the video were made at no cost, with help from many of Carroll’s friends, some of whom are volunteer firefighters. (The video was made in a day, and the tarmac in the video is actually at a fire station.)
- To other disgruntled fliers looking to get results, he recommends the key of D, three-part harmonies and a tempo of 120 to 125 beats per minute. Also, “the smartest thing I did, whether it was conscious or not, was to make it light-hearted. If your music comes across as angry - if you come across as negative - you probably won’t have much success. People don’t want to hear whining.”
- He hasn’t written the third part of the United trilogy yet, “but the way things are going, it could be a love song.”
As for the people at United, spokeswoman Robin Urbanski declared Tuesday that “this has struck a chord with us.” On Wednesday, she added that “his video is excellent, and we plan to use it internally as a unique learning and training opportunity to ensure that all our customers receive better service…. This should have been fixed much sooner.”
— Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times
Previous posts:
Smashed guitar, YouTube song - United is listening now
Guitarist and United dickering, video viewers snickering
14 Comments on “United makes nice, but guitarist’s YouTube songs will go on”
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July 9th, 2009 at 4:18 am
THis is a great story. Corporations need to realize that with YouTube and Facebook, they cannot hide behind walls of untrained customer service people who have no power to solve customer problems. If you want to avoid this in the future you don’t have to do anything special, just treat people right. Duhh
July 9th, 2009 at 11:27 am
United should get permission to use the video first. It’s not theirs to use.
It’s funny how allot of publicity turns public relations into a sweet and gentle thing.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
My thanks go totally to Dave Carroll and his musically friends,for a nice to hear voice and guitar-song.Hope he will get whatever he’s wanting,because I think he deserves it.
Good Luck Carroll.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Thanks to Dave Carroll for a first class hit-song.Splendid voice and guitar play.Hope you will become a world-star,because I think you are.
All the best to you and your Band.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
What a great wat to get the message out.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:36 am
United should pay them royalties for the use of this song in any way. Poetic! LOL
July 10th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Good Job Dave! This is the power we as artists over the big mega corporations that think they can get away with poor business ethics. Too bad that it takes bad PR to get their attention!!!! They should just do the right thing…
Nice song, good statement, your lyrics and melodies are nicely augmented by your chording.
See you out there!
Fireman Jim
Fireman JIm Safety SHows
July 10th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Way to go Dave Carroll! Great band, great song. And along with all that, great humor with a great attitude. Here’s to ya and your imminent success.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Way to go, dave. A good pat your foot tune - better than most I hear on the radio these days.
As for United Air; before retirement, I used United quite a bit, simply because their schedules matched my needs better than most other airlines. Never had a guitar broken, but there were a few other “incidents”. Not being a musician, I was never inspired to composing a catchy tune, and had to settle for a few strong comments.
Good luck with the trilogy.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Nice song, good voice, very clever.
Everyone seems to have a United horror story. I called their reservation line to make arrangements for my daughter to fly unaccompanied to Europe. I was willing to pay the extra $25 to get it done right. So I made the reservation, but had to call back the next day with my cc info and local contact info in Europe. I did everything I was supposed to, was told that I was confirmed, and got an email with her itinerary. A couple of weeks later, I looked at the itinerary, and it said “on hold,” which didn’t look right, so I called and was told that the reservation was cancelled because I didn’t pay - AFTER I had given them my cc info. I was lucky I checked or I might have shown up at the airport with my daughter and had no flight waiting. I called and complained and asked that they refund my $25 because i had not received the service I expected and they refused. I asked to speak to a supervisor who could give me a refund and was told that “no one in the company can authorize a refund.” Not even the CEO I asked? “No one.” I lodged a complaint on their web site, got a call back from a call center in India, had difficulty communicating effectively, and hung up unsatisfied. I will only fly United in the future if there are NO other alternatives available. Vote with your wallet. No on United.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Baggage handlers are nothing but gorillas gone wild.Their union could care less and the airlines are to scared of the unions to try to stop it.United is only sorry that this song is making them look bad and won’t do a thing to stop this from happening.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
United should be groveling at his feet…buying him a Les Paul or a Martin at least!
July 11th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Good job Dave, it’s sad that you had to go so far to get results. The bigger the corp. the smaller we are it seems when making a claim.
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Good for you, Dave, at least it shows the people have a bit of power left.