I'm trying something a little different here.

This story is not something that happened to me. It's something that happened to someone I respect very much.

And because I trust and respect that person, the story affects the way I feel about this company. It has an impact on my goodwill towards them.

In this case, the company is United Airlines and the customer is David Weinberger, co-author of a book called the Cluetrain Manifesto—a book that laid the groundwork for Sutori with its vision of markets as conversations between customers and companies.

Here’s the story, as blogged by David . . .

After United Airline's online systems assured me as of 7pm that my 8:40 flight from Boston to DC was only 45 minutes late, I arrived at the airport to be told by the unhelpful person behind the counter that they'd actually cancelled the flight that afternoon. (I'd also checked with a living person over the telephone.)

But that's just your usual traffic snarl. Kafka didn't step in until I said that the subsitute flight they wanted to put me on at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon wouldn't work, but I still wanted to fly back with my ticket on Monday. Fine, said the unhelpful telephone support person, but that will have to be repriced up as a one way fare.

Ah, yes, that's how to develop customer loyalty!

So what do you think?

Does a “second hand” story like this belong on Sutori?

Should it carry as much weight as a first-hand experience?