Airlines Refused To Compensate Singer After Breaking His Guitar, Read What He Did Next

All of us can relate to dealing with tiring customer service when it comes to asking for a refund, replacement, or compensation. While most people just give up or take the matter to consumer courts, a singer decided to use his biggest strength to call out United Airlines after it refused to compensate him for his broken guitar. Canadian singer Don Carroll claimed that his Taylor guitar, worth $3,500 (approximately Rs 2.9 lakh), broke after it was mishandled by the US-based airline. After he raised the issue with the customer support, the airline refused to compensate him.

Don Carroll said that he was forced to check in his guitar as luggage because he was not allowed to carry it inside the plane as a carry-on. After nine months of futile back and forth with the airline, he released a ‘diss track’ for United Airlines. Don and his brother Dave, who are a part of a two-piece folk-pop band called Sons of Maxwell, released this diss track on YouTube and iTunes on July 9, 2009. The song, titled United Breaks Guitars, became a viral sensation and caused much PR damage for United Airlines.

The song’s lyrics said, “You broke it, you should fix it, you’re liable to just admit it. I should have flown with someone else or gone by car, cause United breaks guitars." Following the buzz created by the song, United Airlines offered to pay for the cost of repairing and gifted flight vouchers to the duo, but the artists refused to accept it. Don Carroll instead asked the airline to donate the compensation amount to a charity.

As per The Guardian, American guitar manufacturer Taylor Guitars personally called the duo and offered them two guitars. As per estimates by the Marketplace, at the time, United Airlines saw a massive 10 per cent dip in its market value as a result of the song. The managing director of customer solutions at United Airlines, Rob Bradford, also called Don to apologise.

Currently, the song has over 23 million views on YouTube. Commenting on it, a YouTube user wrote, “This song is a cultural icon. We were taught about it in university marketing class, as an example of how not to handle a customer complaint." Another wrote, “This is the most impressive complaint about poor customer service I have ever seen!".