United airlines relents to complaints

What would you do when your luggage is damaged by airlines baggage handlers? Call customer care to complain? or write a letter to the company? or post a complaint about the airline in online forums? or go to consumer court? Every day there are numerous complaints pouring in regarding how baggage handlers handle the passenger's luggage. Many of such complaints made by travelers to airlines go unheard. Even if the airlines do respond to such complaints, they claim they are not liable to such trivial things that had happened. Here is a novel way of making an airline respond to your unsettled grievances. Write a complaint anthem and post it online and company would heed to your sulk. Here is such a story.

Last year Dave Carroll and other band members of "Sons of Maxwell" were flying from Nova Scotia to Nebraska on United Airlines. When the flight landed at O'Hare airport, one of the band mate and another passenger saw baggage handlers heaving with Carroll's $3,500 acoustic guitar. He immediately complained to the air hostess but nothing was done to solve the issue. On reaching Nebraska, Carroll found the base of the guitar smashed. He toiled to win compensation for the damaged guitar. With no obvious compensation from United, Carroll spent $1,200 to repair the guitar. Enraged Carroll wrote a song and made a video to be seen by the world. The song has a catchy tune and ridicules United Airlines for not compensating the loss. The video became an instant hit in YouTube and have more than 3 million views. After Carroll posted the video "United breaks" online, the airline relented to his complaint anthem and donated $3,000 in Carroll's name to support music education. With such tremendous response to his first video, Carroll posted second video to thank his supporters.

Did anyone follow these tactics to make an airline relent? Yes of course! Bing Futch a musician, whose dulcimer was damaged by Northwest airlines, posted his own song on titled "United Breaks Guitars - Northwest Breaks Dulcimers" on YouTube. But Northwest airlines took no chances and apologized and offered money towards repair of the string instrument.

It is obvious that companies could never again be indifferent to a consumer's complaint. Thanks to World Wide Web! Anyone in the world would produce such a video and draw a mass exposure towards unsolved consumer grievances. If a company delays to respond or worst if they do not, chances are more that the company's name would be maligned!

One Act of Random Kindness

From my childhood I have been compassionate and loving. I could tolerate when my parents break the promise they made or when they try to avoid me when I nudge them, in want of something. In my school I was taught to love the fellow human being and love them. Years went quickly, that the values learnt in childhood were put to test. When you grow from a child to a teenager and then a mature young adult, you come across different life situations where all the values in you show up. I took decision to be a simple, lovable human being. I believe in "Live and let live". The following is a real life incident.

It was cold morning and it was rather dull. I stay in the campus where I work. As usual I started walking down the road to reach my work place. I reached my work place and on the corridor I could see a young pup coming towards me. It was thin and emaciated. Its mother might have abandoned it. The pup was looking every where to find a scrap that it can eat. It would not find anything. Then suddenly I remembered that I came to work and I have to go to my cabin. The young pop was mourning out of hanger and I felt pity. Then suddenly a thought came in my mind. Several thousands of people around the world have one meal per day or starve and rich countries do not bother to help them. Why should I worry about a dog? I continued with my daily work in the college.

I came out my cabin for a tea break. The pup was there in the corridor and it was even more restless. Every time a staff from the college appears on the corridor, the pup would spring and run to them. The tiny eight inches tall pup would look straight into the eyes, hoping to get something and at times it would come opposite to the path and wage its tail vigorously. Some boisterous staffers would kick the pup to one side. It would cry in pain. I thought why people should harm that innocent young pup? The tea break was over.

After an hour, I again came out to see a senior colleague. I saw, one of the servants with a stone in his hand, walking towards the pup. The pup was running towards the servant. When it neared him, he was shooing it away. Instead of running away from him, the pup sat under his feet in total submission. In no time, the guy threw the stone at the dog. The stone hit directly on it back. It gave a high pitched whimper. A look at the dog would tell it was weak and hungry. The hit had made the pup's condition even worse. It managed to run and hide itself under some old cardboards piled nearby the corridor to escape the wrath. I was shocked to see what had happened. Seeing the dog hide under the cardboard, the servant went to take a stick to chase the dog. In no time, he came with a long stick. I thought it would be inhuman to treat the pup that way. I told the servant to stop what he was about to do with the stick in his hand.

I went near the pup. It had curled itself and was looking very sick. One more staff from my work place came along with me. She too watched what had happened to the pup. She tried to chase away the pup by stamping her feet on the floor. But the pup was too weak to respond to her threat. I bent down and gave the pup a gentle pat over the area where the stone struck it. It responded quickly by turning and looking what I was doing. It seemed to tell me, "That is where I am hurt. Please pat there." Hunger, cold weather and the pain made it moan. I felt helpless for a moment for I can not help it. I was determined not to let this poor pup starve to death. I went the coffee vending machine and got a cup of coffee. I went straight to the little pup, and poured the coffee little by little on the floor. The pup drank all the whole cup of coffee. I felt happy. I went to take lunch and planned to take some food for this hungry pup. I came back after an hour with the food to feed the pup. To my disappointment, the pup was not there.

After two days, I saw the pup back in the college corridor. This time it was energetic. As soon as it saw me, it came running to me. It followed me where ever I went. The other staffs started playing with it. The pup would chase them and it would act like biting them. Every body enjoyed those moments. This time too I gave the pup a cup of coffee. The pup drunk the coffee to the last drop.

I was contented that the pat and the coffee I had given to the pup had made it feel better. Moreover I had shown him that human begins too share their love and joy with them!I remembered a dialogue from the movie, Evan Almighty. It is between God and Evan Baxter.

God: How do we change the world?

Evan Baxter: One single act of random kindness at a time.

It is true that one single Act of Random Kindness at a time would change the world.