United breaks guitars: viral customer service

07.07.09

I met Dave and his brother a few years ago through my sister-in-law, and they are great guys. Their band does mostly east coast celtic and country, but they're not well-known yet, even within Canada.

So when Dave posted this video about United Airlines wrecking his guitar, I went to share it around, only to find that the internet beat me to it.

United is on the ball.  Within 24 hours of the video's posting, they've apparently offered to make amends.

Tounge-in-cheek internet embarrassment seems to be the trick to getting real customer service.  When it worked for Adam Savage, many people wondered if AT&T only responded quickly because of Savage's fame. But the success of this video shows that with little more than creativity, anyone can force a monolithic company's hand.