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Missouri Attorney General Has Harsh Words For U.S. Fidelis

7:32 PM Tue, Apr 28, 2009 |

Watch extended interview

Today we sat down with the Missouri Attorney General, he talked about the lawsuit against Wentzville based U.S. Fidelis. The company sells extended auto warranties, today Chris Koster said the company has used misleading sales tactics to lure consumers. We asked Koster if Missouri residents should do business with Fidelis, Koster said he would not. During a previous interview the CEO at Fidelis told me the company paid out 20 million in claims in 2008, today the AG told me he wants to know how much money the company made during that time period. Last week we told you the Missouri Department of Insurance ordered the company to turn over financial records along with telemarketing scripts, and a list of customers. So far the company has not provided that information to the state...Today we asked U.S. Fidelis to respond to the questions below.

Q. The attorney general says he would not do business with US Fidelis. How do you respond to that?

A. We have 270,000 current customers with whom we have established strong relationships who don't feel that way. Last year alone, the companies whose warranty products we market paid out more than $20 million in vehicle service claims. If US Fidelis had not connected these customers with an affordable vehicle service contract, they would have had a vehicle out of manufacture warranty and been facing large repair bills.

Based on our customers' first-hand experience, they understand the valuable service we provide. In addition, we have been very busy for the past nine months addressing issues and concerns from government regulators and look forward to sharing with the attorney general those changes that are helping lead this industry into the future.

Q. What is new with the Department of Insurance review?

A. There was a miscommunication relating to the meeting with the Department of Insurance. We have, and will continue to work with all government regulators on enhancing oversight of this industry. We have been in close contact with the Department of insurance on the information they have been seeking over the past year and will be cooperating with them in answering their continued questions.

Q. Do you plan to release your annual revenue totals?

A. We are not in a position to comment publicly on each specific issue associated with this matter. Again, we have already indicated that we are happy to work with regulators to ensure that all companies in our industry are living up to the same commitments we have already made. When that process is completed, we will be happy to talk about those changes.

We will have more on this story tonight at 10.




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