YouTube Complain Song cost United Airlines $180 Million

In the spring of 2008, Carroll is traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and his $3500 Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. He discovered that it was severely damaged.

Carroll then sought to have the airline reimburse him but United refused to compensate him.

"The guitar had now been repaired for $1200 to a state that it plays well but has lost much of what made it special," Carroll wrote on his personal website. "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 reply to the United Airlines, Carol promised that he would be writing three songs including videos about United Airlines and his experience in the whole matter and upload it in YouTube.

Carroll goal is "to get one million hits in one year" to date it has over 3.9 Million views.

The song titled 'United Break Guitars' which is now available online in YouTube steered bad PR causes United Airlines’ stock price to plunge by 10 per cent, costing shareholders $180 million.
Incidentally, the price would have bought Carroll more than 51,000 replacement guitars.
"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."Carroll wrote "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."

Social Media has become a powerful especially in terms of a reputation management tool and influencing public opinion giving chance to unhappy customer the power to share their story with millions of people online.