legality of consumer warning sites like paypalsucks.com..?

[chupacabra]

hey all, quick question for the collective... i have a brewing dispute w/ a Lexus dealership in regards to a 'certified pre-owned' vehicle that we bought from them last year, and it just came out that the car was sold to us under fraudulent pretenses, it has been wrecked and repaired somewhere in its history (clean carfax though). it only has 30k miles on it and is already exhibiting major problems such a a leaking main rear seal among other things, likely due to the collision it was in.

before everyone tells me not to use GFY for legal advice let me state we already have a lawyer to deal w/ them for us, but if things do not turn out to my satisfaction i am curious about websites such as Paypalsucks.com... i would have no qualms about putting up a website w/ adwords system directing people in my city to come and read the warnings about this dealership and their actions selling wrecked cars pretending they are tip-top. since Paypalsucks has been up so long it seems it is not illegal to use their trademarked name for a site such as this, but figured i'd ask here regardless if anyone has any information about what is involved in doing such.

any advice or pointers would be most welcome, thx in advance friends..!

;)

[woj]

What exactly would putting up a site like that accomplish? and come on, you already have a lawyer working on this issue for you, why not just ask him instead of posting on gfy, I'm sure he would know best...

[chupacabra]

Originally Posted by woj

What exactly would putting up a site like that accomplish? and come on, you already have a lawyer working on this issue for you, why not just ask him instead of posting on gfy, I'm sure he would know best...

well, i wouldn't put this up unless things went totally south pursuing them legally and we weren't able to recover for our damage... i'll ask our lawyer about it when the time comes if things are not looking good, but if i am left out to dry by the lying fuckers i want to put it up just out of pure spite. since paypalsucks.com gets away w/ using their trademarked name for similar purposes i figure there must be some legal statutes that allow such in cases of unhappy consumers..

again, i will ask our lawyer about it, but thought some here might be more familiar w/ the subject honestly..

[scottybuzz]

yeh dont beat a dead horse, have a look at what the lawsuit brings you, then go on a rapant horse rage.

[SilentKnight]

Originally Posted by chupacabra

well, i wouldn't put this up unless things went totally south pursuing them legally and we weren't able to recover for our damage... i'll ask our lawyer about it when the time comes if things are not looking good, but if i am left out to dry by the lying fuckers i want to put it up just out of pure spite. since paypalsucks.com gets away w/ using their trademarked name for similar purposes i figure there must be some legal statutes that allow such in cases of unhappy consumers..

again, i will ask our lawyer about it, but thought some here might be more familiar w/ the subject honestly..

I'm unfamiliar with the legalities involved if you tried something similiar - but I recall a site (since taken down) called capitalonesucks.com - and although there's undoubtedly a LOT of consumers not pleased with Capital One credit cards - the site suffered from serious inactivity for much of its history.

I chalk it up to the apathy factor. Most people are initially pissed off with a company for a short while, then move on with their lives without really following through on things.

As much as I understand and sympathize with how this dealer ripped you off, I'd say creating a 'sucks' site might be throwing good money after bad and invariably wind up as a waste of your time. I know...its tempting. But in all seriousness, would it accomplish much in the end?

Just my

[LiveDose]

If you use the name Lexus, they WILL send you a C & D. However with the details as you described you may win if it went to court as similar cases have gone both ways. The question is do you want to drop a lot of coin going up against a corporate bully with deep pockets?

[EBORG9]

I have to agree. I remember a "sprintpcssucks" site a while back.(I wish I had read it). No sense in having other people not want to do business with you.

[TampaToker]

i started a website called anti-ebay in like 2002 . With in 2 weeks i had a c@d from ebay. Needless to say i did take it off line but i did not hand it over to them

[chupacabra]

hmm, interesting... thx for the replies all. i guess what confuses me is how Paypalsucks.com is up all this time, and gets a decent amount of traffic from pissed off users if there forums are any indication. i always assumed they were operating in a legal manner since i cant imagine Paypal/eBay liking that site being up..