This is not a new story – at least not new in the fast moving world of viral videos – but there’s a whole bunch of things to be learned from this.
It’s the story of a not-so-well known band called the Sons of Maxwell and the band’s leader Dave Carroll from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
It happened in the spring of 2008. Dave and the band were flying by United Airlines to a gig in Nebraska and while sitting on the tarmac at Chicago’s O’Hare airport Dave witnessed his guitar being thrown about by baggage handlers. The guitar was severely damaged and in spite of expensive repairs was never the same again.
Dave tried to file a claim for damages, but after getting the runaround for nine months he was finally told (by the now infamous Ms. Irlweg) that the airline would not be taking responsibility. He was out of luck.
Dave then told her he would be writing and recording three songs about the experience and posting them on Youtube. Here is the first one, posted on July 6, 2009, which has so far had just under 5 million views.
Read Dave’s complete story here.
The big loser here is obviously United Airlines for being so stupid. As Dave says, “The system is designed to frustrate affected customers into giving up their claims and United is very good at it.”
One thing that bothers me is that Dave gives Air Canada a pass in this instance. That just doesn’t seem quite right. For booking purposes Air Canada and United are joined at the hip, and they just left Dave (and I’m sure many others) twisting in the wind claiming it was not their problem.
Anyway, here’s the first video:
Twitter is getting serious about business. This seems to be the natural evolution for Twitter and they’re encouraging it. They’ve just launched a special guide for the business users – 
Like all local business people, successful real estate agents know that their entire business depends on referrals. Referrals from clients, friends, associates, casual acquaintances. And referrals from other real estate agents.