Huge twist in viral mattress row

There’s been an unexpected development after a rubbish removal company allegedly went above and beyond to exact revenge over a disputed invoice

There has been an unexpected twist in a dispute between a Melbourne couple and a rubbish removal company after they found filthy mattresses dumped in their driveway.

Late last month, Laura Stark’s furious social media post about her dealings with junk.com.au went viral online, in which she described how she and her husband had hired the company to do a collection of wood waste, with the original ad listing the cost as $39.

She claimed that after the removalists came by, they were sent an invoice hours later, requesting a payment of around $500 – and that when they queried the amount, the owner allegedly called and “lost his mind screaming and threatening us”.

Afterwards, the couple found 23 used mattresses “dumped” in their driveway.

The mattresses were dumped in the driveway. Picture: Nine

Ms Stark’s furious post went viral. Picture: Nine

Her post attracted more than 400,000 views before being taken down.

Appearing on A Current Affair on Wednesday night, Ms Stark was mid-interview with reporter Seb Costello when she appeared to hear a noise outside, prompting her to go and inspect its source.

Outside, two removalists in a Junk.com.au truck were seen collecting the mattresses.

Costello – and his cameraman – quickly joined Ms Stark outside, where he asked the employees if they could help him get in contact with their boss, Junk.com.au owner Richard Furnari.

The reporter spoke with the removalists on camera. Picture: Nine

A few days later, he sat down with Costello, where he hit back at Ms Stark’s claims and defended his actions.

“I think it’s very common in our industry,” he told Costello.

“You’ll find that the bin and skip recycling businesses if you don’t pay for your skip and bin, once they’ve picked it up, you’ll find that they’ll tip another one straight in your driveway. It’s very, very common.”

Mr Furnari hit back with his side of the story. Picture: Nine

He added that his issue had stemmed from the fact that the couple allegedly refused to pay any of their $514 bill – a claim which they have denied.

“If he [Ms Stark’s husband, Jared] had have said, I’m happy to pay 400 or 300 or 200 or $1 … but he didn’t say anything. He actually wanted to pay zero,” Mr Furnari claimed.

“He wanted to pay nothing and in fact taunted us to give him the mattresses instead.”

He also disagreed with the assertion that his actions were “standover tactics”

“I think there’s a difference between standover and stand-up, and my job is to stand up for my people, my staff, my brand, my business, the industry, and not to allow people to simply have a hundred thousand dollars truck, two men clean up their property and turn around and say, I’m going to pay you nothing,” Mr Furnari told the reporter.

“You’ve got to be careful what you wish for. Sometimes they asked us to take them there and we did.”

Meanwhile, Ms Stark described the situation as “embarrassing”:

“All we wanted was to dispute a bill,” she said.

“We’ve never not paid an invoice or a bill ever. I don’t think we’ve even disputed anything. “We’re good people. We wouldn’t rip anyone off,” she said.

Originally published as Huge twist in viral mattress row