Jake Sturmer reported this story on Monday, December 16, 2013 18:26:00

MARK COLVIN: Two Australian companies selling online ads and web space have gone bust owing $4.5 million. They've also left thousands of customers potentially out of pocket and offline without their websites.



The companies operated behind a complex network of businesses, and customers are demanding answers.



Liquidators are looking into how they plunged so deeply into debt, and whether to refer the affair to ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission) for further investigation.



Our technology reporter Jake Sturmer has the story.



JAKE STURMER: Internet web host Fulfilnet Australia started with much fanfare. The then prime minister, John Howard, opened the company's offices in Sydney in 2003.



The company began by selling web space and then went onto selling online ads and changed its name to Yodel Australia.



But now the only loud noises appear to be the complaints of dissatisfied customers.



OLYA HILTON: What they do, they just take money off people. They tell them that they are going to help them increase the traffic, they are going to help them improve their sales, and nothing like that happens.



JAKE STURMER: Olya Hilton is a Queensland photographer.



She signed up with Yodel to get her advertisements on Google but says she had no increase in hits to her site.



OLYA HILTON: I never, ever saw the ad on Google, and I did not see any increase in traffic at all. I was quite surprised, actually, to hear that the ad was running.



JAKE STURMER: Soon after signing up with Yodel Australia she got a call from a company called Blink Digital offering services to increase her ranking on search engines like Google.



She didn't sign up.



It turns out Blink Digital is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yodel Australia.



Queensland life coach and hypnotherapist, Reea Pawley, did sign up with Blink for the search engine optimisation services, known as SEOing (Search Engine Optimisation).



REEA PAWLEY: I paid for three months of SEOing, and that was supposed to go from, I think, from October to January. And by January they'd done absolutely nothing. I still had no presence and I was on page 5,000 on Google still.



JAKE STURMER: The service wasn't what she expected. So at the end of the three month period she tried to cancel, but she says her credit got charged anyway.



REEA PAWLEY: I'd, you know, done everything I could to let them know I was not happy with the service. I'd emailed them, you know, I'd done all sorts of things. They charged my credit card without my permission, which I was really angry about.



JAKE STURMER: Reea Pawley and Olya Hilton are only out of pocket around $1,000 each. That's nothing compared to what the company owes all its creditors.



The company owes $4.5 million, including $160,000 to NAB, and $100,000 to Google.



Together, Yodel Australia, Fulfilnet and Blink Digital have had more than 140 complaints in New South Wales alone.



Here's Fair Trading commissioner Rod Stowe.



ROD STOWE: We did send an investigator to the business in June this year to talk to them about some of the concerns we had with the way in which the business was being conducted.



JAKE STURMER: Despite getting assurances from Yodel Australia that things would be improved, just five months later the business was put into liquidation.



Paul Harvell was the managing director of Yodel Australia and Blink Digital and believes the company grew too big too fast.



PAUL HARVELL: The systems that we had in ourselves were not adequate, and I'll cop that.



JAKE STURMER: He believes some of the problems arose because of companies set up by ex-staffers in competition.



PAUL HARVELL: We had a lot of customers getting very angry with us about billing issues. And those issues then transpired to - guess what we lost them to - who would you guess? These guys that have left just last week.



JAKE STURMER: Paul Harvell has left Yodel, but he's still in the sales game, working with a former colleague running a consultancy for call centres.



Liquidators are investigating any possible offences by people involved with the company.



As for the customers left behind, many doubt they'll see their money again.



MARK COLVIN: Technology reporter Jake Sturmer.