Hundreds of consumer complaints, two fraud investigations, an imminent trial for “misleading commercial practices”… But nothing seems to shake the development of Indexia, a specialist in insurance and telephone services.
“I took out SFAM insurance (formerly Indexia) for a telephone at 15.99 euros/month in 2016 in an SFR space,” says Isabelle, a 50-year-old who works in marketing and wishes to remain anonymous.
In mid-2022, he was alerted by “dubious” champions. He realizes that different companies belonging to Indexia charge her three or four times a month in different bills for services that he claims he hasn’t requested. In six years, he says, she was charged around 10,000 euros and he got a refund of 4,000 euros, after “harassing” customer service.
The group (3,000 employees in Europe) is little known to the general public. Its brands are nevertheless part of the daily life of millions of consumers, through 2,500 points of sale in Europe: SFAM and Celside (insurance of multimedia products), Cyrana and Foriou (discount programmes), Serena, Hubside…
After marketing its insurance at Fnac in France between 2017 and 2019, Indexia started opening multimedia stores in 2020: the Hubside Stores.
Since its creation in 2010 in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme), its turnover has increased from a few million euros to more than one billion. Target 2023: 1.26 billion.
– “Mastering the Customer” –
The group wants to become a leader in the refurbished sector and is developing in the rental of devices (drones, electric scooters, etc.), aiming for 500 Hubside Stores by the end of 2023, against the current 130.
These showcases (and products) allow it to sell its services – 8 million “clients in management” say – and to “master the client from A to Z,” its CEO and founder Sadri Fegaier tells AFP.
Some of his partners are increasingly cautious. Fnac-Darty, of which Indexia is the third shareholder, did not want to renew the contract in France and Spain.
The “financial conditions” of the Fnac “didn’t suit us”, replies Sadri Fegaier.
The end of this partnership came after the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumers and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) opened an investigation in 2018. It concludes, after a search in October 2018, that “the method of selling used for the marketing of the products of the SFAM group (SFAM insurance and Foriou loyalty programme) constitutes the crime of misleading commercial practices”.
“My mother bought a phone in 2016 for 68 euros… In the end, it cost her more than 4,000 euros,” Gil Grosson told AFP. After requesting the sending of the corresponding direct debit contracts in June 2022, he said he realized that the signature on the initial contract and direct debit mandate was not that of his 77-year-old mother.
“They’re scribbles,” and the email address Indexia would send endorsements to “doesn’t exist,” he adds. Withdrawals went from 3.90 euros/month to almost 180 euros before the Postal Bank blocked them for the pensioner.
– Good “rare” –
To avoid a lawsuit, the group pledges in June 2019 to compensate customers who request it within three months and to pay a fine as part of a criminal settlement. It is about ten million euros, according to a source familiar with the matter. A figure “proportionate to the seriousness of the practices”, according to the DGCCRF. A “rare” figure, says Raphaël Bartlomé, head of the legal department of UFC-Que Choisir.
“It’s a calculation they make in relation to turnover,” says Sadri Fegaier, indicating the timing of the opening of the investigation: at the beginning of 2018, his business is flourishing and the fund that invests in Ardian joined of a Rothschild fund in group capital. The Caisse des dépôts et consignations, a public institution, and the sovereign wealth fund of the Mubadala Emirates follow during the year.
“We have taken note of the criticisms that have been made, knowing that the contracts have been made with our distributors (…) Today at the Hubside Store, we are the ones who make the sales”, continues the CEO, who has become the 58th fortune of France according to Challenges.
But the reports remain numerous and also concern the Hubside stores. With testimonials proliferating in more than a dozen media outlets and on social networks, UFC-Que Choisir tells AFP he has received “nearly 500 new reports” since September.
Insurance broker Arnaud Chneiweiss says he has received “hundreds of complaints” contesting “the willingness to take out insurance” concerning various companies including Indexia, which he identifies “among the actors posing a problem”.
In order for there to be a lawsuit against Indexia, the lawyer Emma Leoty filed in late November before the Paris court a summons for a joint class action that brings together 61 lawsuits.
Me Leoty says she gets calls “almost every day” from consumers from all walks of life, sometimes “asphyxiated” by the champions.
He obtained a first conviction in July for a man withdrawn from more than 9,000 euros over ten years. This pensioner, who wishes to remain anonymous, told AFP that he had received “random direct debit” refunds totaling around €7,000, part of which was obtained “shortly before the hearing”.
“We have not been convicted,” Sadri Fegaier told AFP first, before acknowledging, questioned several times, this sentence of one thousand euros in damages and legal costs. His lawyers have appealed.
Very few customers remain dissatisfied, he says, pointing to winning “two million new customers every year across Europe” and highlighting his quality controls.
But “how many French people are taken without knowing it?” Leoty asks me.
– Constant? –
Nothing seems to be shaking the group, which has seen telecommunications expert (Altice, SFR) Alain Weill join its board of directors in late November.
However, soon after the criminal operation, the DGCCRF opened a second investigation, the reports continue to flow.
“All the better that the DGCCRF carries out the checks,” says Sadri Fegaier. His right-hand man Jean-Pierre Galera adds to this by saying that this is the case with “all large companies dealing with very, very large volumes.”
The DGCCRF indicates that its second investigation ‘revealed practices which mislead consumers who wish to stop direct debits, terminate their subscriptions and be refunded any money withheld after termination of their contract, that their claims have been taken into consideration. even effective”.
The DGCCRF forwarded the file to the judicial authority and the Paris public prosecutor’s office announced at the end of August that several group companies and the CEO would appear before the Paris criminal court for “misleading commercial practices”. The date of the hearing has not yet been set.
Sadri Fegaier says he has not (yet) been called up. “The goal today is just for the case to make a lot of noise, for there to be a lot of articles and media about it, I tell you that there is no need to make a big deal out of it,” he said. “I am very calm.”
According to consistent sources, there are so many people appearing as civil parties in the trial that the choice of the date of the hearing has been postponed in the minutes.
Sadri Fegaier doesn’t hold back: “we know, we will always have criticisms, but the only thing they can respond to is lasting over time”.
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