Man claims removalist charged credit card after he left bad Google review

One day after a man left a negative Google review on a removalist’s business page, he noticed a shocking charge on his credit card.

A consumer has claimed a removalist firm charged $2000 to his credit card after he wrote a negative Google review of the company.

The firm’s owner says the charge was an “accident” and it provided a refund “straight away”.

Dane Ponting enlisted Affordable Movers Brisbane to relocate his belongings from Brisbane to Hervey Bay.

After showing up for the job, the company contacted him and told him he needed to pay an extra charge of $1070 for an additional trailer that was used after the initial truck couldn’t fit all of his items in one trip.

Mr Ponting claims the truck was already half-full when it arrived.

He felt he had no choice but to absorb the cost for the trailer out of a concern that the company wouldn’t deliver his possessions. Later, he opted to share his experience online.

In a Google review, he detailed his dissatisfaction with the service and warned others about the extra charge he had to pay.

He told A Current Affair he had emailed the company two days earlier to ask why he had to pay the extra charge, but his attempt to resolve the issue proved fruitless.

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Dane Ponting’s movers arrived with a mostly-full truck and he was charged an extra fee to have all of his belongings moved. Picture: Nine/A Current Affair

The day after leaving the review, Mr Ponting noticed the company had charged $2000 to his credit card.

Mr Ponting immediately contacted its owner, Rahul Nagpal, known as John to customers, and told him: “You can’t just take money off our credit card.”

“He called me and he basically said, ‘I’ll refund you the money if you delete your Google review,’” Mr Ponting alleged on A Current Affair.

Mr Nagpal told news.com.au “the charge on Dane’s card was an accident, which is why he was refunded straight away”.

“Dane has received a refund of $1070 for the trailer and he has taken down the review as well,” the owner said.

Rahul Nagpal was accused ofwrongly charging Mr Ponting. Picture: A Current Affair

Texts obtained by A Current Affair showed Mr Nagpal allegedly telling Mr Ponting that if he removed his review and agreed to never leave another one, the $2000 would be refunded.

In one message, according the program, Mr Ponting told Mr Nagpal: “On the phone with police. Send me a confirmation of the refund and then we’ll talk.”

He alleges Mr Nagpal replied telling him: “Delete the review and confirm that it will stay deleted and you will leave no more reviews. That’s the easy way and it will save a lot of time.”

Mr Ponting doubled down, saying: “I don’t want to delete the review because I don’t really want it to happen to somebody else.”

Mr Nagpal told A Current Affair he had given Mr Ponting a discount upfront without telling him, which he explained was why he charged him the $1070 fee.

“I did the wrong thing. I agree with that, I did the wrong thing,” he conceded.

Text exchanges attained by A Current Affair. Picture: Nine/A Current Affair

The firm’s Google business page is filled with dozens of complaints from dissatisfied customers. Picture: Google/Affordable Movers Brisbane

Mr Nagpal told news.com.au the issues with Mr Ponting’s experience had been resolved, and denied the company would withhold items until customers paid in full.

“We do not hold customers’ goods hostage,” he said.

The incident is one of dozens of complaints against the company that feature among its 880 Google reviews. Other dissatisfied customers complain about damaged furniture, items being withhold until extra fees were paid, or removalists showing up late.

One man, Leyton Miller, claimed workers showed up hours late, he was charged a 5 per cent credit card fee, and the company refused to repair goods despite initially agreeing to do so.

“I was just left with broken promises and broken furniture,” Mr Miller said.

Mr Nagpal told A Current Affair he was familiar with the people behind the complaints and said the business was working to smooth out its issues.