Horror Stories 2 - United Breaks Guitars

Just how bad can a single customer service mistake be? An airline breaks a passenger's guitar - so far so (relatively - unless you like Taylor guitars) mundane. It's what the airline did (or didn't) do next that saw one video get over 12 million views on YouTube, spawn 2 sequels, numerous spoofs and spin-offs and, most important of all for United Airlines, causeduntold long-term damage to their reputation (and prompted a 17% fall in its share price):

If only United Airlines was a HelpHound client:

• Dave Maxwell would have received an 'invitation to review' email 
• He would have submitted his complaint - in private
• Miss Irhlweg would have responded - through HelpHound
• If her response had been inadequate - one of our moderators would have contacted United and made sure it was corrected
• Mr Maxwell would have got his guitar fixed/replaced
• No-one but United, HelpHound and Mr Maxwell would have been any the wiser (unless Mr M went on to post a review, which in all likelihood would have been what we call a 'positive negative': 'They broke my guitar but they replaced it - thanks United.')
• United's share price would have been 17% higher!!