Supplier Series : ACCESS Newswire – A Den of Deception and Corporate Sleaze

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Let’s get straight to it my friends, no fucking around. ACCESS Newswire, that slimy rebrand of Issuer Direct Corp, isn’t some shining beacon of corporate communication. It’s a stink-pit of bait-and-switch tactics, aggressive harassment, and half-arsed services that leave clients bleeding money and trust. Trading under the NYSE ticker ACCS, this outfit peddles press release distribution and compliance services like they’re handing out gold, but dig a little and you’ll find a trail of pissed-off customers, unresolved lawsuits, and a web of complaints that scream incompetence – or worse, outright predatory behaviour. Founded by Brian R. Balbirnie, who still clings to a hefty 16.16% stake, the company boasts institutional backers like Topline Capital Management with 18.5%, but don’t let the suits fool you. This is no polished operation; it’s a grinder that chews up small businesses and spits out empty promises. And now, with their fingers in the pie of giants like Cummins Inc., you have to wonder if this is just another cog in a machine that laughs at ethics while counting the cash.

I’ve pored over the wreckage – lawsuits dismissed but damning, BBB complaints gathering dust without a whisper of response, Trustpilot rants that could fill a bloody novel, and G2 reviews that paint a picture of sales reps more interested in fleecing you than fixing problems. No large-scale scandals? Bollocks. The absence of a smoking gun doesn’t mean the place isn’t rotten to the core. It’s the everyday grind of deception that kills faith in these bastards. Customers aren’t just dissatisfied; they’re furious, harassed, and out of pocket. And as for their ties to Cummins? Oh, we’ll get to that, and it stinks of a shared disregard for playing fair.

Lawsuits: Dodging Bullets, But the Smoke Lingers

Start with the courtrooms, where ACCESS Newswire – still slinking around as Issuer Direct back then – has been dragged in as a defendant not once, but at least twice in recent years. These aren’t frivolous spats; they’re battles over stock transfers, compliance cock-ups, and accusations of enabling dodgy dealings. Take the 2023 showdown in North Carolina’s Business Court: Visionary Education Technology Holdings Group, along with Fan Zhou and 3888 Investment Group, hauled Issuer Direct in front of a judge, screaming for an injunction under the Uniform Commercial Code. Why? Because the company was allegedly on the verge of lifting restrictions on shares held by former directors Yiu Bun Chan and Thomas Traves, shares tied up in a messy Canadian lawsuit over unmet performance goals. The plaintiffs reckoned Issuer Direct was about to let these blokes flog the stock prematurely, potentially screwing over everyone else. It got dismissed without prejudice for lack of standing – the plaintiffs weren’t the registered owners – but that’s cold comfort. The court didn’t touch the meat of it: Was Issuer Direct asleep at the wheel, or worse, complicit in lax enforcement? No ruling on liability, no appeal, just a quiet fade-out. But the stench remains – if your transfer agent can’t be trusted to hold the line on restrictions, what the hell are they good for?

Fast forward to August 2024, and it’s Bluefire Equipment Corporation’s turn to swing the hammer in Wake County Superior Court, North Carolina. Bluefire, a renewable energy outfit already under SEC scrutiny for its own disclosure dodges, slaps Issuer Direct (doing business as Direct Transfer LLC) with a complaint over breaches in transfer agent services. Details are murky in public filings – think disputes over share registrations, compliance fumbles during corporate shake-ups or redomiciliation – but it’s ongoing as of September 2025, with no resolution in sight. Bluefire’s no saint, but that doesn’t absolve Issuer Direct from potentially botching sensitive securities handling. These cases aren’t fraud bombshells, but they expose a pattern: operational sloppiness that borders on negligence, leaving clients exposed and furious. In a world where stock transfers can make or break fortunes, this lot’s neutrality and efficiency look about as solid as wet paper. Bloody outrageous – companies like this should be guardians, not gatecrashers in financial chaos.

Customer Complaints: Harassment, Bait-and-Switch, and Zero Accountability

Shift to the front lines, where the Better Business Bureau paints a picture of a company that’s not just unaccredited – meaning they can’t even meet basic trust standards – but utterly unresponsive to the misery they inflict. As of September 2025, three unresolved complaints from 2024 sit there like open wounds, all screaming about service delivery, billing nightmares, and outright bullying. One punter in May 2024 alleges a sales agent dangled a six-month trial for press release distribution, only to lock them into a full-year £24,000 contract. The release got mangled in editing, results were shite, and when they bailed for “incompetence and bait-and-switch,” no prorated refund. Another in April 2024 shelled out £775 for a test release that flopped, opted out within the 10-day window, but got bombarded with up to five harassing calls a day for months. Then came the debt collectors chasing the full whack – “bullying” doesn’t even cover it. And the kicker: a power-of-attorney holder for an Alzheimer’s patient in April 2024, wrestling with delayed dividend processing from 2009. A promised £240 cheque bounced on an “unlocatable account,” slapping them with a £15 bank fee despite endless follow-ups.

Patterns? Aggressive sales that morph into traps, post-sale support that’s a joke, and refund disputes that drag on like a bad hangover. The company hasn’t bothered responding to any of it. Not BBB-accredited? That’s code for “we don’t give a toss about resolving your pain.” These aren’t isolated gripes; they’re the tip of an iceberg where small fry get shafted while ACCESS Newswire pockets the fees and ghosts the fallout. It’s predatory, plain and simple – preying on hope and delivering despair.

Review Platforms: A Chorus of “Scam” and “Unethical”

Dive into Trustpilot, where ACCESS Newswire scrapes a 3.5/5 from about 50 reviews, but the negatives – over 20 one-to-three-star tirades from 2024-2025 – read like a manifesto of betrayal. Deceptive billing tops the list: unsolicited auto-renewals despite clear opt-outs, bogus invoices, and threats of legal action or harassment. One reviewer in May 2025 fumes about “unethical bad faith” with unreachable support – invalid phone extensions, unanswered pleas. Another in October 2024 blasts unauthorised card charges and horrible team communication. Service quality? Laughable. Paid-for national ads yielding zero customers, releases never published despite the cash grab – “Total scam – money taken, release never published,” spits one in October 2024. Poor communication reigns: slow responses, conflicting distribution details, overcharges without notice. Insecure payments? They’re asking for credit card CVVs via email, for fuck’s sake. Fraud accusations pepper the lot: “fraudulent service,” “bad people,” with pleas to flee to alternatives like BusinessWire.

G2 echoes the rage, with mixed reviews but cons hammered home: hidden fees leading to “profoundly negative” experiences, assured one-time services flipping to subscriptions. “Expensive with hidden fees leading to negative experiences and ethical concerns,” one gripes. Limited functionality, releases not hitting targeted media, “unexpected charges not communicated upfront; slow, inconsistent customer service.” Sales pressure? Reps are “sales-focused, not listening,” sowing contract confusion. It’s a litany of frustration – overpriced, underdelivering, and ethically bankrupt. These platforms aren’t echo chambers; they’re battlegrounds where real users vent the raw truth. ACCESS Newswire’s response? Crickets, mostly. Bloody infuriating – if you’re this shit at your job, at least own it.

Broader Criticisms: Reddit and Industry Dismissals

Even on Reddit, in forums like r/PublicRelations, newswire services like ACCESS Newswire get shredded as “crap” or flat-out ineffective. Users dismiss them as “not worth it,” with coverage confined to low-quality affiliate sites that puff up stats artificially. Specific to ACCESS: it’s flagged as a resellable affiliate gig but slammed for generic, worthless results. “Better to pitch directly to media,” the consensus roars. General vibe? Overpriced at £1,300-plus for U.S. releases, delivering “no worthwhile results.” No direct scam allegations on X (Twitter) – mostly neutral or promo fluff – but the Reddit undercurrent is damning: these outfits are money sinks for the naive, inflating egos while draining wallets.

And ownership? Balbirnie’s 16.16% grip and the March 2025 sale of the compliance division to Equiniti Trust Company LLC supposedly streamlined things, but if complaints spiked around then, it smells like disruption dressed as progress. Topline’s stake? No red flags, but in this ecosystem, silence isn’t innocence.

Ties to Cummins: An Ethical Ecosystem of Convenience?

Now, the Cummins connection – and it raises the hackles. ACCESS Newswire isn’t just some isolated operator; it’s the go-to for distributing press releases from Cummins – our reprehensible engine buddies. Look at the trail: “Cummins Gets Fit for Age of Change” via ACCESS Newswire, investor alerts on Cummins class actions pushed through their channels. Cummins uses them to blast news in direct feeds such as Yahoo Financial under their own stock ticker, meaning a client relationship that’s cosy enough for ongoing business. So, is ACCESS Newswire just another spoke in a wheel where ethics are optional? Their own dodgy practices – bait-and-switch, harassment – mirror a mindset that prioritises the bottom line over integrity. Question it: if you’re comfy amplifying a firm with Cummins’ baggage, what does it say about your own moral compass? It’s an ecosystem alright, one where “alternative ideas on ethical behaviour” means bending rules until they snap. Outrageous – associations like this don’t happen in a vacuum; they thrive on mutual blindness.

In the end, ACCESS Newswire’s low controversy profile is a facade. Customer service failures, perceived deceptions, and courtroom skirmishes pile up into a indictment of a company that’s all take and no give. Transparency? Bollocks. It’s resolvable, they say – but only if they bother. Until then, steer clear, or join the chorus of the screwed.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

Sources

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