United Breaks Guitars Case Study

           With this particular issue it sounds to me like fingers could have been pointed at a lot of different people claiming that the issue was their fault or is theirs to deal with.  I say that as a blanket statement to include Dave Carroll and the rest of the band.  I know that while flying, if you have something that is fragile, then you can make arrangements the luggage handlers are aware by either stickers being placed on the luggage or some kind of special tag being put on the handle to indicate the contents are fragile.   To that extent, I would say that is something that Dave Carroll and his group did wrong.  However, that is not to say that the luggage handlers at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport are not responsible for their actions.

            I am sure that part of the training that luggage handlers receive concerns the proper way handling luggage and doing so in an efficient manner.  The handlers may have been in hurry trying to get the luggage moving so the plane wouldn’t be delayed but that doesn’t excuse the fact of throwing luggage around, especially a guitar case.  Regardless of whether or not there was a guitar in the case, it is always better to error on the side of safety.

            Now, concerning how United Airlines handled the situation, there are certainly much better ways to handle what happened then how they did.  I realize that in the customer service world there are specific ways of doing things and corporations have those in place so that customers don’t take advantage or the system.  However, the system should be set up to still be able to help customers and take care of issues rather than making them worse.  The fact that the issue wasn’t resolved right away, or at least within six months, was a big issue.  I have worked in different kind of customer service and you always want to follow policy and procedure but you it is always stressed to try to fix the issue the right way the first time so it doesn’t come up again.  That way you have happy customers and the company no longer has to deal with the issue. United Airlines should have done exactly that.  They had nine months at which point the issue escalated to Dave Carroll being in correspondence with an employee of United Airlines.  At that point and time, United should have weighed their options and said, “Should we give him the $1200 or make a gamble that he won’t tell anyone?  Let’s give him the $1200 and have it over with.”  Instead, they stuck to “their guns” and said no, denied the claim on some ridicules grounds, and paid a pretty heavy price, somewhere to the tune of $180 million.  United Airlines should have resolved the issue right away.

            As for Dave Carroll and the Sons of Maxwell, they did everything within their power and knowledge to get the issue resolved.  They attempted to contact an employee immediately after the incident but were passed off to this person or that person.  After resolving that they weren’t able to take care of it immediately, they took the only avenue they could, calling by phone.  It seems that Dave Carroll did everything he was told that was within his means.  He played the game to the best of his ability but United Airlines wasn’t playing fairly.  After nine long months of going back and forth the phone, email, and fax machines, Dave Carroll and the Sons of Maxwell did what they do best.  They used their talents as a creative outlet for their frustration to tell the world about what occurred while still being within their rights and without defaming and stating anything libelous about United Airlines. 

            Ultimately, the outcome that resulted was a necessary one.  It forced United Airlines to learn, though it was in a very hard way, it was still a necessary lesson.  Dave Carroll and the Sons of Maxwell did everything they could.  It wasn’t their intention to have United’s stock drop, but that was a consequence of United’s lack of action.  Dave Carroll and the Sons of Maxwell did everything right, United, though they stuck to “their guns”, did everything wrong.