On March 31, 2008 Sons of Maxwell began our week-long-tour of
Nebraska by flying United Airlines from Halifax to Omaha, by way of
Chicago. On that first leg of the flight were seated at the rear of the
aircraft and upon landing and waiting to deplane in order to make our
connection a woman sitting behind me, not aware that we were musicians
cried out: “My god they’re throwing guitars out there”. Our bass player
Mike looked out the window in time to see his bass being heaved without
regard by the United baggage handlers. My $3500 710 Taylor had been
thrown before his.
I immediately tried to communicate this to the flight attendant who
cut me off saying: “Don’t talk to me. Talk to the lead agent outside”.
I found the person she pointed to and that lady was an “acting” lead
agent but refused to talk to me and disappeared into the crowd saying
“I’m not the lead agent”. I spoke to a third employee at the gate and
when I told her the baggage handlers were throwing expensive
instruments outside she dismissed me saying “but hun, that’s why we
make you sign the waiver”. I explained that I didn’t sign a waiver and
that no waiver would excuse what was happening outside. She said to
take it up with the ground crew in Omaha.
When I got to Omaha it was around 12:30 am. The plane was late
arriving and there were no employees visible. Although I was told later
that it wouldn’t have mattered, I should have taken my hard case out of
the padded protective exterior case to examine the guitar at the
airport but I didn’t. The guitar case looked ok and we were tired, went
to the hotel and then to sleep for our early morning pick-up by the
tour managers the next day. When they picked us up in the early morning
we would not be back in Omaha for seven days. It was later that day at
sound check that I discovered that the base of my Taylor had been
smashed.
One week later I returned to Omaha for my return trip. I explained
what had happened and the United agent in Omaha said I needed to start
a claim at the airport where the trip began (Halifax). So here is what
happened next.
When I got home to Halifax I was told that United doesn’t really
have a presence there and that Air Canada is their partner. Every plane
I flew on that day said “United” on the side but technically they have
no presence there. So, Air Canada gave me a phone number to start my
claim with United. When I called the number United said I had to return
to the Halifax airport with the guitar to show the damage to someone
and open a claim. When I returned to the Halifax airport I met with an
Air Canada employee, because United has no presence there, and that
person acknowledged the damage, opened a claim number but “denied” the
claim because Air Canada would not be responsible for damage caused by
United employees in Chicago (which still makes sense to me).
I took the claim number and called United back. They never seemed to
be able find the claim number on several subsequent phone calls but at
the last minute it would always surface. I spoke several times to what
I believe were agents in India who, ironically were the most pleasant,
and seemed genuinely sorry for what had happened. Three or four months
later I got directed to the Chicago baggage offices of United and after
several attempts to speak with someone was told to simply bring in the
guitar for inspection…to Chicago…from Halifax, Canada.
When I explained that Halifax is far from Chicago someone then said
my claim needed to go through Central Baggage in New York and they gave
me a toll free phone number. I phoned that number and spoke to someone.
She couldn’t understand why someone in Chicago thought she would be
able to help me but she seemed to feel for me and asked me to fax her
all the information. I did and a few weeks passed with no reply. I
called back and the lady said she’d never received the fax. Then I
asked her to look for it and surprisingly, there it was. When she found
it she asked me to give her a couple of days and to call back. I did,
and by the time I phoned again two days later, the number had been
discontinued.
I had to start all over again with the same 1-800 # to India, where
they were as sorry as ever for what happened, couldn’t find my claim at
first, and told me I needed to bring the guitar into Chicago’s O’Hare
for inspection. Six months had gone by and the guitar had now been
repaired for $1200 to a state that it plays well but has lost much of
what made it special. I spoke to a customer service manager in India
who promised to forward a note to have someone in Chicago contact me. I
received a letter a about a month later from Chicago with no name or
contact info, saying someone would be contacting me about this.
Another month went by and I received an email from a Ms. Irlweg, in
Chicago I believe. Basically said she was sorry this happened and
denied my claim. Some of her reasons included :
• I didn’t report it to the United employees who weren’t present when we landed in Omaha
• I didn’t report to the Omaha airport within 24 hours while I was driving to places that weren’t Omaha
• It was an Air Canada issue
• Air Canada already denied the claim (as I mentioned, because Air
Canada would not pay for United’s damages), but I’m still unsure as to
why I needed to report it in Omaha within 24 hours if it was clearly
Halifax’s responsibility
• Someone from United would need to see the damage to a guitar that was repaired
So after nine months it came down to a series of emails with Ms.
Irlweg and, despite her refusal to introduce me to her supervisor, our
conversations ended with her saying United would not be taking any
responsibility for what had happened and that that would be the last
email on the matter. My final offer of a settlement of $1200 in flight
vouchers, to cover my salvage costs repairing the Taylor, was rejected.
At that moment it occurred to me that I had been fighting a losing
battle all this time and that fighting over this at all was a waste of
time. The system is designed to frustrate affected customers into
giving up their claims and United is very good at it. However I
realized then that as a songwriter and traveling musician I wasn’t
without options. In my final reply to Ms. Irlweg I told her that I
would be writing three songs about United Airlines and my experience in
the whole matter. I would then make videos for these songs and offer
them for free download online, inviting viewers to vote on their
favourite United song. My goal: to get one million hits in one year.
To date I have written “United: Song 1” and “United: Song 2” and I’m
proud to now release the first video in the trilogy. The response has
been incredible so far. Everyone involved in the recording of the track
and filming/editing of the video has volunteered their time and
pre-production work is underway for the filming of United: Song 2
(hopefully to be released later this summer).
United has demonstrated they know how to keep their airline in the
forefront of their customer’s minds and I wanted this project to expand
upon that satirically. I’ve been done “being angry” for quite some time
and, if anything, I should thank United. They’ve given me a creative
outlet that has brought people together from around the world. We had a
pile of laughs making the recording and the video while the images are
spinning on how to make “United: Song 2” even better than the first.
So, thanks United! If my guitar had to be smashed due to extreme
negligence I’m glad it was you that did it. Now sit back and enjoy the
show.
Dave
You can watch the 'United Breaks Guitars' video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo