By now, 95% of the internet has heard of the poor Physician who was forced off United Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville. The guy is probably going to make some decent pocket change from this as the security people responded with more force than appropriate.
This reminded me of an earlier public relations fail by United Airlines - here is the story from Sentium:
How saving $1,200 cost United Airlines 10,772,839 negative views on YouTube
It is a customer service nightmare. At the same time, it is a good lesson about how social media can impact your business.
Here’s what happened:
A singer/songwriter named Dave Carroll was flying from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Omaha, Nebraska, with a layover at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. As he was getting ready to get off the plane, he heard another passenger say, “My God! They’re throwing guitars out there!”
As Dave and the other band members looked out onto the tarmac where the luggage was being unloaded, they recognized the guitars. Their reaction was a blend of terror and disbelief.
Later he indeed discovered that his $3,500 Taylor guitar’s neck had been broken.
What followed was a customer service nightmare. Dave tried for nine months to get a claim processed with United. The response was a firm and consistent “no.” They claimed he had waited longer than 24 hours to process a claim, so he was out of luck.
He tried phone calls. He tried e-mails. He even went so far as to suggest that instead of money, United give him $1,200 in flight vouchers to cover the cost of repairing the guitar. United held firm. They said “No.”
So, what else could a singer-songwriter do?
That’s right. He wrote a song and produced a music video. The song was titled “United Breaks Guitars.” He put it up on YouTube and it went viral.
The incident happened in 2008. Here are links to the videos: United Breaks Guitars, United Breaks Guitars Song 2, and United Breaks Guitars Song 3 as well as this website: UNITED BREAKS GUITARS. There are two iron laws in business. #1) - The Customer is always right - and - #2) - when in doubt, refer to rule number one (with obvious exceptions for customers trying to rip off the business).
The airline would have known about the overbooking before they even started boarding - they should have kept offering more and more money to get someone to stay behind. Now, they have a huge public relations problem and will be on the losing side of a hefty lawsuit.
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