Consumers now can air their (legitimate) issues regarding treatment by corporations!
Somehow I missed this back in 2009, when Dave Carroll's video about United Airlines mishandling of his guitar was released. I'm disappointed that I didn't see it back then, but got a real kick, earlier today, when I saw it for the first time. I include the video below, but don't miss the rest of this post, because it's in your own best interest to be aware of where Dave has taken this mess.
According to Red Tape Chronicles (an MSNBC blog), Dave has since created a number of videos (he promised United there would be three, but I think there are more than that), and they are all up on Youtube (click the link to see what's there). He didn't stop there, though.
Dave has created a website named Gripevine, a site you can use to post your gripe against a corporation for the way you are treated. He has a clever concept and it's free to the consumer. I'm not going to describe how it works here (read about that on his site), but know that your gripe must be clean and not mean, and that he somehow rates each griper for relevance, meaning you can't just dump a bunch of gripes out there trying to get some company to pay you something.
His concept gives us regular folk a bit of leverage against the big guys when they ignore us. It's refreshing to finally see something being done about the helplessness we feel when trying to resolve an issue with Corporate America. (It reminds me of a scene in Dave, the movie with Kevin Kline, where one of the conspirators, played by Frank Langella, tells Dave that he is a "nit, a nobody, a flea", basically, not important to anyone, even though he is impersonating the President of the United States at Langella's behest. If you haven't seen it, SEE IT! It's one of my favorite comedies of all time.)
There are no guarantees, but at least there's a way we can have a voice. Thank you, Dave Carroll and United Airlines (although I don't think they are very happy about it!)
Like my company on Facebook!
See my web pages to understand what I do and who my clients are.
According to Red Tape Chronicles (an MSNBC blog), Dave has since created a number of videos (he promised United there would be three, but I think there are more than that), and they are all up on Youtube (click the link to see what's there). He didn't stop there, though.
Dave has created a website named Gripevine, a site you can use to post your gripe against a corporation for the way you are treated. He has a clever concept and it's free to the consumer. I'm not going to describe how it works here (read about that on his site), but know that your gripe must be clean and not mean, and that he somehow rates each griper for relevance, meaning you can't just dump a bunch of gripes out there trying to get some company to pay you something.
His concept gives us regular folk a bit of leverage against the big guys when they ignore us. It's refreshing to finally see something being done about the helplessness we feel when trying to resolve an issue with Corporate America. (It reminds me of a scene in Dave, the movie with Kevin Kline, where one of the conspirators, played by Frank Langella, tells Dave that he is a "nit, a nobody, a flea", basically, not important to anyone, even though he is impersonating the President of the United States at Langella's behest. If you haven't seen it, SEE IT! It's one of my favorite comedies of all time.)
There are no guarantees, but at least there's a way we can have a voice. Thank you, Dave Carroll and United Airlines (although I don't think they are very happy about it!)
Like my company on Facebook!
See my web pages to understand what I do and who my clients are.
Posted by Sid Plait at 2/16/2012 1:47 PM 
Categories: Bully Pulpit, All, Internet, In My Opinion, Big Mistakes, Music, Social Media, Corporate America, Miscellaneous, Good News!, Onion Rings
Tags: Gripevine Red Tape Chronicles YouTube Kevin Kline Frank Langella Dave Connolly Corporate America guitars United Airlines
Categories: Bully Pulpit, All, Internet, In My Opinion, Big Mistakes, Music, Social Media, Corporate America, Miscellaneous, Good News!, Onion Rings
Tags: Gripevine Red Tape Chronicles YouTube Kevin Kline Frank Langella Dave Connolly Corporate America guitars United Airlines
For those of you who have seen this comment before, I apologize. I have reposted it because the post it went with was not emailed to my readers, and I reposted THAT. Therefore, I needed to re-add this comment.
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THIS is what the social aspects of the Internet are all about, and THIS is why I have had such a strong interest in the Internet since I found out about it back in the early 80s (when it was ARPAnet).
We are watching the Internet change the world, and it is giving power to so many who never could grasp it before - power to bring their music, poetry, or prose to the masses, power to speak their minds, power to use their skills to make money when there was no chance of doing that on their own, and, as long as they play by just a few rules, no one can block them.
There are good and bad aspects of the issues I mention here, and it's not clear yet how (if at all) this can be managed by anyone or any organization.
I have been told I am an idealist, and I know that's right. I prefer to look at the benefits of the Internet for making the world a better place, while doing the best I can, through this blog, speaking engagements, and everyday conversations, at providing information to individuals that can help them (you) avoid the detriments.
Examples of those who have used the Internet for the positive include Perpetuum Jazzile (look 'em up) for their music; Fred, the unemployed guy in some tiny town in Pennsylvania that wrote the $.99 app you installed on your phone last week; and Dave Carroll. I get a kick out of knowing these people exist and have figured out how to be more powerful than they could have been before the Internet.
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention my brother, Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, who fights the good fight for critical thinking through his web site, Bad Astronomy (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/). Check him out. Check them all out.
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Just so you know, the link for Dave Carroll, which takes you to the Wikipedia section about his band, Sons of Maxwell, is correct.
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