United Airlines is obviously still doing damage control (as well they should) over their treatment – and quite frankly for their CEO’s initial public AND private comments- of a passenger who was forcibly removed from his seat. But these aren’t the first complaints about United.

In fact, Jeremy Cooperstock from Montreal, Canada has spent the last five years locked in a legal battle over a website he created to collect customer and employee complaints about the airline. He said, “Going and suing your critics into oblivion is not really the right way to improve the airline although I understand it’s all an economic game.” Crazy.

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The Beginning

Cooperstock first started the website back in the 1990’s, as a student at the University of Toronto, after taking a turbulent trip with the airline when he was still a student. Their response then was to send him and the University a cease-and-desist letter. So, they removed the page.

From the article:

“But instead of disappearing into cyberspace, Cooperstock decided to up his game by publishing complaints and starting a complaints database. He claims angry customers and employees encouraged him to start a website in 1997, a move that didn’t sit well with United Airlines.

‘The United employees helped me do so financially. I registered the domain name Untied.com to reflect an organization that was quite disassembled and not held together effectively,’ Cooperstock said.”

Over the years untied.com has collected an estimated 30,000 complaints. Which may be why in 2012 the Chicago-based airline launched a legal battle against Cooperstock claiming his design and logo infringed on their trademark. The move, Cooperstock felt, was meant to frighten him. It didn’t work.

He lost his fight in the provincial court earlier this year and is now awaiting the verdict from a federal court judge. While the first ruling forced him to stop providing the names and contact information of executives at United Airlines, and he assumes the second ruling may force him to hand over the domain name altogether, he plans to keep it up as long as possible.

We agree. Keep on fighting. Use your voice.

Source: Global News