I'm sorry that your trip didn't go as hoped for, but if you read some of the other threads in this forum like this one:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...r-hell-ii.html

you'll find many tales of woe that sound pretty bad in comparison to your experience.

I think you would find a lot of UA passengers from the past couple of months who would have felt quite blessed if they had been forced to fly Delta instead of United.