United Breaks Guitars
...and suitcases, and promises, and most of the Ten Commandments
The Kaptain's Log
by Manuel Miles, aka Kaptain Kanada
Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise
Well shipmates, if you haven't seen the latest "viral video" at YouTube by now, you should do so. It's entitled "United Breaks Guitars" and recounts the sad but true story of a massacre of musical instruments by one of the many incompetent, inhuman commercial airlines.
While Nova Scotian band Dave Carroll and The Sons of Maxwell's horror story could have unfolded had they flown many another airline of the "friendly [sic] skies", they happened to be on United when the O'Hare baggage vandals attacked their expensive, custom guitars. I am sure I don't have to tell you how United's "customer service [sic again!]" responded to Mr Carroll's repeated efforts to be compensated for the cost of repairing his Taylor guitar.
So, after a year of United's indifference, contempt and stone- walling, Dave did the Canadian thing: he told the airline's Ms Irlweg that he would make and post three videos on YouTube. One can imagine the response of the bureaucrats at United; "Well, you do what you gotta do... snicker, snicker" After all, who fears retribution from obscure Canadian bands?
Well, the first video hit YouTube this week. Dave was hoping to get 1 million hits in the first year; in the first four days his video "went viral", garnering over 2 and a quarter million hits! The Sons of Maxwell are now world famous, and United Airlines is teetering on the brink of permanent obscurity.
The question which the owners and (mis)management of UA are no doubt asking themselves is why this video struck a chord not only on Dave Carroll's guitar but with the weary, huddled masses of North American airline passengers. You can be sure that neither United nor any other airlines expected this to happen. After all, they have got away with treating passengers like cattle for decades now. MORE HERE
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