"United Breaks Guitars" followup

[Guy Fawkes]

Dave Carroll Says No To Guitar Hush Money From United

 

http://consumerist.com/5311943/dave-carroll-says-no-to-guitar-hush-money-from-united?skyline=true&s=x

 

We officially love Dave Carroll now. Not only is he cute and a good singer, but he's classy (check out how he defends the United employee in this video response) and has principles. The best part is at the end he encourages us to stay tuned for song #2. United hoped it could pay for the guitar and put an end to the bad publicity—but it looks like you're not getting off that easily, United. Check out the full video response below.

[Romann]

Good deal!

 

I congratulate him for not taking the hush money which should have been paid without delay when he first voiced his complaint. I guess this will be a learning lesson to all airlines that luggage, like many things should be cared for and that people (consumers) are watching. Next time, someone just might get it on video and post the actual live coverage for all to see on YouTube along with the major news networks.

 

I was sitting on my plane in DFW waiting to pull away from the gate and was watching intently as all the luggage was being loaded into the belly of the plane though I was on an American Airlines flight and not United Airlines. I had my phone ready to video in a moments notice.

 

Thank you for the update Daddy. Much appreciated.

 

Dave Carroll Says No To Guitar Hush Money From United[/size][/b]

 

http://consumerist.com/5311943/dave-carroll-says-no-to-guitar-hush-money-from-united?skyline=true&s=x

[Guy Fawkes]

You all did good! Enough people hollered that some good things will be coming out of this. Wait for the 2nd video, I suspect that'll give ya the rest of the story.

[KMEM]

There is always someone who is willing to throw cold water on a family picnic and I guess I am that SOB today. I applaud Dave Carroll and his stand. However, I am very curious about what anyone thinks will come out of this. UA probably will pay some money to some charity and then go on about its' business. UA obviously thinks money will cure whatever problems it has and regardless of who they pay it to, that is their clear intention. Here I am comparing their position with the use of insurance. Insurance companies don't fix cars, boat, houses, airplanes or guitars. They pay for the loss or repair in accordance with their contract.

 

It takes real leadership to change the philosophy of a large (or small) company, not attention mainly to the bottom line. I see no evidence of that happening.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[+ purplekow]

That is one damned catchy tune

[+ azdr0710]

"an undisclosed warehouse somewhere in Nova Scotia".....

 

that's hilarious

[KMEM]

For those not anally retentive enough to read a contract of carriage, let me briefly summarize by saying that UA, by convention and contract, only is required to pay 9.07 a pound for checked baggage up to a limit per person (for every thing to include carryon) of $3,300. Let's assume a guitar weighs 5 pounds. That means UA can value a broken one at under $50. You can declare a higher value and pay for additional insurance (or get a separate policy independent of the carrier) but the airline reserves the right to not insure it for that value or not take the item as checked baggage. They very likely would not take expensive jewelry and they won't insure firearms although the only legal way to carry firearms on an airline is checked baggage.

 

Everyone should consider their own situation and act accordingly.

 

No airline will just send you a check. You will have to fill out a form and possibly be quizzed about the items and then you might have to "hound" them to perform.

 

I have had two claims during my career, mainly because I have only checked baggage a relative handful of times. Once, with BN (Braniff); they lost some aircraft parts I was bringing back from England. It took me 2 months and much haggling to get the $300 I had claimed (this back in the 70's). The other was with FEDEX. I had a claim with them for delayed delivery of valuable goods. My claim was for a few hundred dollars After much haggling and back and forth with their agents, they mailed me a check for $200, the stated limit of their liability without a declaration of higher value. This also in the 70's.

 

We all do things without thinking them through. We send stuff through the mail without insurance or FEDEX or check baggage on the airlines. By far most of the time, everything happens without a hitch. But remember, even though the US Postal Service claims 99.9% or some such correct deliveries, with the billions and billions of pieces, they still lose a few million. Staggering, isn't it?

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[Romann]

Isn't it? I have had the song in my head for a number of days and have it saved in my favorites. Call me corny but it has a certain tune to it plus the cute face always helps as well.

 

That is one damned catchy tune

[+ purplekow]

For those not anally retentive enough to read a contract of carriage, let me briefly summarize by saying that UA, by convention and contract, only is required to pay 9.07 a pound for checked baggage up to a limit per person (for every thing to include carryon) of $3,300. Let's assume a guitar weighs 5 pounds. That means UA can value a broken one at under $50. You can declare a higher value and pay for additional insurance (or get a separate policy independent of the carrier) but the airline reserves the right to not insure it for that value or not take the item as checked baggage. They very likely would not take expensive jewelry and they won't insure firearms although the only legal way to carry firearms on an airline is checked baggage.

 

Everyone should consider their own situation and act accordingly.

 

No airline will just send you a check. You will have to fill out a form and possibly be quizzed about the items and then you might have to "hound" them to perform.

 

One assumes that usual care will be taken to protect their belongings when in the care of airline employess. Accidents happen and both the airline and the traveller should share that risk. In this case, as presented, the employees were seen by many people throwing the guitars. This would seem to make this about willful negligence. If one were so inclined, a small claims suit, in NJ it goes to $3000 I think, or a regular lawsuit might get the airline moving in a more cooperative direction. I think this song might be doing a bit more than that.

[KMEM]

One would like to think that you are correct. However, they aren't called baggage smashers for no reason. They have a limited amount of time to do a fairly physical job. If you grocery shop (I do), do you bag your own groceries? I do. I may not be as fast as the person who does it all day every day but I never have damaged groceries when I get home or shaken up bottles of soda, etc. Your only hope of doing this on the airline is to carry on. I believe Pablo Casals used to buy 2 first class tickets, one for himself and one for his cello. I am not suggesting this as a viable solution unless you have plenty of money or, perhaps, your large item is extremely valuable.

 

It may not be as easy as you think to get a judgement even with pictures and witnesses. Once, at my home airport, a (coincidentally) UA 727 took the turn to the runway a little too quickly and added a lot of power to do so. That blew a little 4 place high wing (Cessna 172) aircraft up on one wing tip doing a relatively small amount of damage. The tower exclaimed, United XXX, you just blew that little airplane over, er, I mean cleared for take-off. The owner of the little airplane contacted UA with all the details. They refused to even talk about it. The owner had the radio tapes saved, lined up all his witnesses and went to court. Then and only then did UA do what they should have done to start with and pay this small claim.

 

The point being, large companies just are not going to volunteer to pay any thing. They have a policy of doing business this way. Many don't even pay contracted amounts anywhere nearly on time. They start off 30 days or 60 days or even 90 days late and claim this is "on time". If you are a small vendor, what is your choice? Stop doing business? Your only hope is to build in a small amount to pay the holding time but they will try to circumvent this also if it comes to their attention. In tough economic times like we are in now, it all becomes exagerated.

 

Perhaps one of our attorneys will chime in and tell us how long it will take to collect if one does go to small claims court (and wins).

 

To repeat myself, one would like to think you are correct.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[Romann]

I think more care should be taken of ones luggage by all airlines especially since consumers are now required to pay to check 1 piece of luggage and even more for a 2nd and 3rd not to mention you will pay more with weight limits. If I'm paying these fees I expect better treatment of my items which I think is fair. But, that's just me...

 

For those not anally retentive enough to read a contract of carriage, let me briefly summarize by saying that UA, by convention and contract, only is required to pay 9.07 a pound for checked baggage up to a limit per person (for every thing to include carryon) of $3,300. Let's assume a guitar weighs 5 pounds. That means UA can value a broken one at under $50. You can declare a higher value and pay for additional insurance (or get a separate policy independent of the carrier) but the airline reserves the right to not insure it for that value or not take the item as checked baggage. They very likely would not take expensive jewelry and they won't insure firearms although the only legal way to carry firearms on an airline is checked baggage.

 

Everyone should consider their own situation and act accordingly.

 

No airline will just send you a check. You will have to fill out a form and possibly be quizzed about the items and then you might have to "hound" them to perform.

 

One assumes that usual care will be taken to protect their belongings when in the care of airline employess. Accidents happen and both the airline and the traveller should share that risk. In this case, as presented, the employees were seen by many people throwing the guitars. This would seem to make this about willful negligence. If one were so inclined, a small claims suit, in NJ it goes to $3000 I think, or a regular lawsuit might get the airline moving in a more cooperative direction. I think this song might be doing a bit more than that.

[+ purplekow]

I own a small business and was doing business with GOD, no not the Almighty, rather Guaranteed Overnight Delivery. They were a big local, perhaps even national chain, though I haven't seen their trucks around lately. Anyway, they ran up a bill of about $7500 and their staff called my office when we refused to see one of their employees. We said their bill was deliquent and we would not see their people until payment was received. Their response? "The bill was not even in collection yet" That was their policy to wait for collection before considering payment. Well their account was in collection and then to court. We won in small claims court. They still did not pay. We sent a sheriff over and padlocked their gate. They were then more than willing to pay. They wanted to bring the check right over but I mentioned I planned on being out of town for the next three days so they could bring it over the following week. In the meanwhile, the business was padlocked. I told them for an extra $3000 I could stay in town until they paid the bill. They brought both checks over, we went to the bank and cashed them and then I told the sheriff he could undo the padlock. This was in a moderate size city in NJ and I had no special pull with the sheriff. You can't totally knock out a big company, but you can kick them in the balls once and again. By the way, with the extra $3000 I was able to close down for three days.

[KMEM]

Good you got your money. Sounds like you basically had the same experience as the owner of the small airplane except he didn't have to use padlocks. Would you call your experience "easy" or a preferred way to have to do business?

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[+ purplekow]

Obviously not a preferred way to do business and that is why I refused to take GOD's business when it was offered after the settlement. In GOD we trust my ass... GOD's attitude is the attitude of many companies because people don't want to bother with the work of collecting and there is no real penalty for the offender. Court costs are usually minimal and damages are usually awarded

[Romann]

I was dinking around on iTunes today looking for some new music and I came across this song for sale now. It seems to be doing quite well! I got a chuckle out of it.