“I have noticed increasingly large withdrawals from my bank account”, “I have a lot of trouble contacting Indexia services”, “Indexia promises a refund within 35 working days, and still nothing”. The testimonies pile up and resemble each other. Their names are Adrien, Florence, Marc, Valérie or Stéphane and tell of the same dismay: the discovery of large withdrawals from the subsidiaries of Indexia group, based in Romans-sur-Isère, and the impossibility of being reimbursed.
Hundreds of customers requesting reimbursement
In July 2021, Josiane goes near Auxerre, to Quenne, to her brother Marc, 78, severely disabled after a stroke. He tells her about his bank account. The pensioner has almost no more money. “I go through his statements and go back to May 2020, a month right after buying his phone from SFR”explains Josiane. His brother took out insurance for his cell phone and was debited 5,367.67 euros in about nine months : “The first month, there were two samples. The second month, four. Then seven, eight, nine samples. In January, my brother was sampled 11 times for a total of 494.88 euros. I said to myself that they were going to empty his account”.
These practices are not isolated. Adrien, in Reims, speaks of 1,500 euros in undue deductions in two years. Florence, near Pau, is claiming 2,400 euros collected between 2014 and 2021. A Facebook group “Scam SFAM” brings together a thousand Internet users. Hundreds of reports have been recorded since the conviction of the former Roman company to pay a fine of 10 million euros for deceptive commercial practices in 2019. Since the beginning of the year, in three and a half months, Claude Hiance, the president of the consumer association in the Drôme, has already supported five persons.
I am enraged! I will fight until the end for my brother – Josiane
“Their practices have not evolvedregrets Claude Hiance. Looks like they didn’t understand. They were convicted and they continue.” He explains the difficulty for him at the start of having the contracts terminated of its members. A difficulty confirmed by Florence: “The quality department, after three months, after having received yet another letter, replied that it was going to reimburse me within thirty days. And I still have nothing”. Same answer for Adrian: “It’s very complicated to have someone. I sent a lot of emails without return. I sent letters by registered mail without response either. And I was finally offered a refund within 35 working days. The deadline has passed and despite my reminders, my three calls a week, still nothing”.
In a press release dated April 4, the DGCCRF, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention explains that it has noted “practices consisting in misleading consumers to believe that they wish to stop direct debits, cancel their subscriptions and obtain reimbursement […] that their requests were taken into account or even effective”. The companies – SFAM, FORIOU, HUBSIDE, CYRANA or SERENA – are suspected of implementing these practices, according to the repression of fraud, “with a view to keeping active a large number of contracts for an artificially prolonged period in relation to the wishes of consumers”. The DGCCRF thus sent the results of its investigation to the Paris public prosecutor..
What outcome then? “I am enraged! I will fight until the end for my brother”, testifies Josiane, even if it means considering a legal outcome. This will be the last solution for Adrien who no longer excludes filing a complaint. Florence, near Pau, hesitates to call on Julien Courbet on a competing radio station. Indexia group, which wished to intervene live on our antenna, did not accept our request for a recorded interview. France Bleu Drôme Ardèche therefore did not obtain the answers to its questions.