Vocus, Inc. PR Web bait and switch, misrepresentation, failure to perform, breach of contract Beltsville, Maryland

Vocus agreed to provide me with 24 press releases for a sale price of $1800, a discount from their normal pricing structure. I made it clear to the sales representative that I was going to use the press releases to promote my book. I informed him that I had no events or news, but that I would be relating current events to the subject matter in my book. In other words, the releases would contain commentary as well as facts.

The salesman said that other subscribers do similar things and that should not be a problem. However, every time I submitted a release, the editorial staff refused it on the basis that it was opinion, not news. When I asked for a refund, management refused on the basis that under their normal pricing structure the few releases I had been able to get by the editors would have cost more than the $1800 I had paid.

I used only eight of twenty four releases before I gave up out of utter frustration of fighting continually with the editorial staff.