Cision, Inc.

Stay away from VOCUS/PRWEB. They did not honor their contract with us. VOCUS/PRWEB did not deliver what we purchased and they refused to issue a refund or provide us with a service credit. In fact, they most likely spent two to three times as much money, time and energy fighting us over this than our service credit even amounted to. During their merger/acquisition, our 12 month prepaid contract was not honored. They sent us incorrect form responses from their customer service department as well as their legal department. We suggest NOBODY do business with these people as the same thing may happen to you. A more complete description of the issue follows. We have been fighting with Vocus to try to recoup the last 5 months of service that they failed to provide us. Material changes to our contractually agreed upon service were made to the login system, and/or our login credentials, at some time during the negotiation process which resulted in Vocus’s breach of the contract to make the service available to Turnkey Internet. We know that Vocus was acquired by GTCR on April 14, 2014 for approximately $447 million dollars. We also know that the Chief Executive of Vocus, Rick Rudman was relieved of his duties and replaced as a result of the acquisition. Vocus also reported a loss of four cents per share in Q4 of 2013. Additionally, as a result of the acquisition, there were substantial layoffs of Vocus personnel after the acquisition was completed, as evidence, please refer to www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2014/07/layoffs-hit-vocus-after-private-equity-buyout.html?page=all The only reason I bring attention to these matters is because we have also been through an acquisition and merger ourselves with a different company we owned a number of years ago. The first thing we’d like to stress is that these acquisition discussions can last from 12 to 18 months before the actual acquisition takes place. Since the acquisition took place in April of 2014, it is safe to say that the negotiations began sometime early in 2013, which is about the same time we subscribed to Vocus’s service. Secondly, when a company is negotiating an acquisition or merger, the employees of the acquired company become preoccupied with wondering about their future rather than paying attention to the present day tasks at hand. Will they still have a job? Will their pay go down? Will they have to move? Will they have a new boss? What will this new company be like? Will I still want to work here? Should I begin to look for employment elsewhere? These are just a few of the things that go through the minds of the employees during acquisition negotiations. And, as we can see from the article link above, they are/were rightly concerned, because many of them were laid off. To summarize, Rick Rudman is selling his company and wants top dollar and yet the Q4 earnings are coming in at a loss of 4 cents per share, which I’m sure put a tremendous strain on Mr. Rudman and that strain, along with all the other unknowns faced by the employees, must have created quite a chaotic atmosphere at Vocus. It is very easy to see how we got lost in the shuffle with all this discord going on at Vocus during the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014. We’re not blaming anyone, we know these things happen. We attempted to work this out with you directly and not involve any third party. Unfortunately, the staff at Vocus chose to not take the high road, which, in itself, is an extension of the basic issue to begin with. We understand what a tumultuous time it must have been at Vocus for the six or more months prior to the completion of the acquisition and we understand that’s why the ball got dropped on us, however, that does not relieve them of their contractual obligations to customers who have prepaid for their service.