United Breaks Guitars ~~ Dave Carroll's Story

Pauline Thornton says:

On July 2, 2011, I flew on United to Chicago then on to Ohio via first class. I asked the flight attendant to please put my ukulele in the overhead bin and he said, "No, we have a special place for things like this". I thought, wow!! what service. Upon deplaning, the flight attendant could not find it. Even I looked in the closet and could not see it. Another flight attendant said, it has to be in here. He had to take out at least 12 roll away suitcases from the closet and at the bottom of that pile was my ukulele. All the supports on the inside of it were broken off and it had 5 cracks from top to bottom on the back. None of the flight attendants would give me their names, nor were they willing to even look at my instrument. They refused to talk to me. They were rude. I was told that they are not responsible for carry on luggage. I have written to them to ask if they could repair it and they absolutely refuse to accept responsibility. They wrote back and said that their answer will remain the same. They first offered me $150 voucher for future travel. Second time they offered me $250 voucher for future travel. I wrote and told them that i do not need vouchers, I want my ukulele to be repaired. My purpose for traveling to Ohio was because two of my grandchildren were in the hospital. One was hit by a drunk driver and the other was hit in the head with a softball and doctors were contemplating brain surgery. I live in Hawaii. I only have a part time job. With my ukulele, I play music for the sick in the hospitals, in their homes, the veterans at tripler hospital, the nursing homes for the elderly and even at funerals. All as a volunteer. I've had to borrow one to play since this happened but it's not the same as mine. My ukulele cannot be replaced because the company that makes it is not in business anymore. The repair shop estimated the least to be $1200. My last request to united airlines was on 10/13/2011 asking that they re-examine my request and they have not responded. It has been very frustrating but I will not give up trying. I play for my grandchildren all the time. They love it. United is liable as far as I'm concerned. If the flight attendant had put it where I asked him to, it would not have been broken. I have traveled with it that way for the past 10 years and never had a problem, First time on united and what a horrid experience. Customer relations experience was just as bad as the flight attendants.

Posted noviembre 02, 2011