uVent.com.au founder Anthony Mittelmark recently launched a Web site that would serve as a meeting ground for Australian consumers with complaints and local companies. Within one week, the portal received about 11,000 complaints which indicate how angry and frustrated Aussie consumers are.

"We don't want it to become a company bashing site. We want people to be able to air their complaint, and for companies to respond," Mr Mittelmark told The Herald Sun.

"Consumers have a lot of power today, they can go online and say whatever they like about a company. We want to provide a level playing field," he added.

Mr Mittlemark disclosed that mobile phone bills topped the complaints made by Aussie consumers. Other complaints were made against finance, utilities, insurance, car and airline companies.

Companies, to be notified of a complaint filed about their industry, must pay the Web site a fee. If a firm is not willing to pay the fee or is slow to respond to the complaints, it may risk losing some business as more consumers read about the bad press.

Since mobile phones companies top the list of complaints, Telstra is not relying on uVent's services alone, but has employed 60 people to search social media sites for complaints about the phone firm.

Telstra Chief Executive David Thodey said he is aware of the swift way that consumer complaints travels around the world due to the Internet which led to the telco to take a pro-active stand when it comes to consumer feedback.

He said among the frequent complaints monitored in social networking sites are technicians not showing up and poor network coverage. The immediate responses to these complaints attempt to provide a solution to the problem before the complaint spreads further.

"If you can go ahead of that and say, 'No, we are here, we'll talk to you,' (there is) enormous change in terms of customer reaction.... That is not to say that we get it right every day but we need to be far more dynamic, chat rooms etc. in terms of using this technology," he added.

Mr Thodey admitted customer service became more challenging for Telstra after it no longer enjoyed monopoly status and had to compete in the marketplace. Since 100,000 people visit Telstra outlets and 35,000 technicians make home visits daily, he conceded the opportunity to get is wrong is quite high.

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