Dave Carroll was a singer-songwriter and a member of the band Sons of Maxwell. In 2008, he flew with United Airlines from Halifax to Omaha, with a layover in Chicago. He checked in his Taylor guitar, which he valued at $3,500, as part of his luggage.
Upon arriving in Omaha, he discovered that his guitar was broken, apparently due to mishandling by the baggage handlers. He contacted United Airlines to file a claim, but faced indifference and bureaucracy. They informed him that he had missed the 24-hour window to report the damage and was not eligible for compensation.
In his attempts to escalate his complaint to various managers and executives, he received no satisfactory response or resolution. Frustrated, he decided to take matters into his own hands and wrote a song called “United Breaks Guitars”, recording it with his band and posting it on YouTube.
The song quickly went viral and had a significant impact on United Airlines' reputation and customer satisfaction. Within four weeks of the video's release, United Airlines' stock price fell 10%, costing stockholders about $180 million in value.