Have any of you seen this...pretty amusing (except for the fact that a taylor was destroyed)

Dave and Don Carroll of the band Sons of Maxwell. (Sons of Maxwell)

Halifax band Sons of Maxwell have taken their battle with United Airlines over a broken guitar to YouTube.

And it seems the U.S. airline might just be listening.

Dave Carroll, the primary songwriter for the folk group, pledged to write three songs about United Airlines breaking his guitar after months of runaround over the incident.

"We were touring last year, over a year ago, going to Nebraska and we had to fly United Airlines landing in Chicago for a quick turnaround," he told CBC News.

"Somebody who didn't know we were musicians cried out from behind me that 'they're throwing guitars outside.'"

Carroll said his bass player saw United employees throwing the bass guitar, recognizing it through the plane window.

"I tried to alert three employees who showed no interest at all and it began a nine-month saga of me trying to get compensation for a guitar that ended up being broken, badly broken," he said.

The $3,500 Taylor acoustic guitar had been custom-made and was packed in a padded double case, but United refused to take responsibility. Carroll sent emails, wrote letters and talked to people at the airline over nine months until a Chicago employee told him to stop sending emails because he wasn't going to get compensation.

"I said 'What would Michael Moore do if he was a singer-songwriter?' and so I decided to write three songs," said Carroll, who started Sons of Maxwell with his brother Don.

United Song #1, a hurting song, with a catchy refrain that goes, in part, "United breaks guitars" and "You broke it you should fix it," went on YouTube July 6. It caught on pretty quickly, with more than 150,000 hits in its first day.

The song describes the incident in detail, including the horror of watching from the plane as their equipment was wrecked.

That was enough to get the airline's attention.

On Tuesday, a United Airlines spokeswoman said: "This has struck a chord with us. We're going to contact him directly."

Carroll said he's hoping his song is going to make a difference for everyone who gets burned by battered luggage.

"They're talking about changing the culture of customer service. This could end up making a real difference," he said.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

That vid is up to 1.56 million hits at this point. Great video!!

I saw my $2000 (in 1978) Alembic Seris I bass heaved onto a Southwest plane Fortunately, I still have it and nothing happened but I felt his pain then and I feel it now.

I never once on any tour ever let the airlines put my guitars under the plane. They went in/over/or next to me. That was in the 70's and 80's though. I only got a little flack from the airlines. Nowadays i don't know but I do know how unreasonable they can be.

Wow this just proves never ever mess with a talented person. What fools United are.

Now that the mic is open in front of them, they want to be the heroes and do the right thing. They had their chance to do that, before this poor guy went through a year of crap and made them look like the apes that they really are.

I was setting in the terminal in Atlanta a few years back looking out the window. I was watching the baggage handlers load the plane at the gate. I saw the (idiot) handler pick up a guitar (in a case) and throw it several feet onto the conveyer. Right then and there I decided I would never check my guitar as luggage.... if I needed to carry it I would do a carry on. I mostly try to arrange a guitar on the other end through friends in the country.....that has worked well in the past, and made me a few new friends in the process...... trust the airlines to handle my guitars properly..... no way!

trust the airlines to handle my guitars properly..... no way!

Maybe in three flight cases stacked inside each other like Russian nesting dolls, then sealed inside a 300lb. steel safe.

I had to fly United on the way back from Ohio just the other week with my husband and our two-year old. Even though I'd made arrangements (and confirmed seats) over a month beforehand, when we got our boarding passes, none of us was even remotely near another one. This has happened before to us, on other airlines, and in all cases, Someone in charge has stepped up and helped us out - so that at least ONE of us was sitting with the baby. At United, however, No One wanted to help me at the ticket counter, telling me to ask the Flight Attendent. When we boarded the plane, I immediately asked the Attendent for help. He looked at me as if I were an alien and said, You'll have to ask the people around you if anyone would like to move." Then he picked up the mic and started making announcements, effectively ignoring me. First seat, one man ignored me, the other pointed to his ear, which I assume menat he was hearing impaired (or also ignoring me). I moved on to seat number two. Ignored again. Seat Number three, and finally a very nice German businessman took pity on us and took my original seat. All the while, another attendant was GLARING at me, presumably for holding up the line. Here's the crazy thing... as we were sitting there, waiting for the rest of the plane to load, the SAME THING happened to TWO MORE families with kids under 3!!!! How insane is that? The plane was old and uncomfortable, the worst I've flown on in several years - a 4 1-2 hour flight and we were offered only a CUP of soda. Pathetic, and I will Never Ever fly United again. It was shameful.

Whew. That feels better.

I was going to say something about what I think of airlines treating people like this, but it would have been X-rated.