Bitter Melbourne dispute over rubbish removal fee ends with 26 old mattresses dumped on couple’s driveway
A Melbourne mother has had a wall of used mattresses dumped outside her garage door by a waste collection company after a dispute over a bill.
Laura Maultby and her partner Jarrod came home this week to find 26 mattresses in their driveway. They hired Junk.com.au to remove some old, rotting planks of wood from their backyard last Tuesday.
Management of the company, which has offices in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, said the couple had been given an advance quote and had the right to dump the mattresses at the Langwarrin property.
However, Ms Maultby said she was surprised by the $514 fee.
“When they picked it up and we got the invoice, I went back through all the communications and found the price, hidden in the documentation… the pricing was ambiguous,” she said. Yahoo News Australia.
Richard Furnari, owner of Junk.com.au, said the fee was known in advance.
‘[Jarrod] “He contacted our office and was given a written quote of $99 for trash collection by two men in a truck and $190 per cubic yard for trash,” Furnari said.
‘He [Jarrod] said he didn’t know exactly how much wood he had before it was picked up.’
A couple from Melbourne came home this week to find these mattresses in their home
Laura Maultby said she was shocked by a $514 bill that required the removal of some old wooden planks
Mr Furnari claimed it was two and a half cubic meters of wood, but Ms Maultby said it was less than half that, about one cubic metre.
The dumping of an equivalent amount of waste on a customer’s premises if payment is not made is included in the terms and conditions on the Junk.com.au website.
“In the event that the Supplier has not been paid in full after a reasonable period of time (and no payment arrangement has been made): the Client agrees that the Supplier may deposit a similar quantity of waste as originally collected back at the Client’s site address without notice,” the terms state.
Mr Furnari told Daily Mail Australia he had already processed the wood and advised Jarrod he would return the equivalent value of waste: ’26 mattresses at $20 each. The recycling fee is $520 which he still owes’ before his staff would deliver them.
He has since said the mattresses will be collected on Friday and that he will instead submit the unpaid bill to Victoria’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
Daily Mail Australia has asked Ms Maultby for additional comment.