TIO mulls Twitter as complaints gateway

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) is exploring Twitter and Facebook as potential new avenues for consumers to file complaints against their telecommunications or internet service provider.

A TIO spokesman confirmed the organisation is looking at the social networking sites but said it "hadn't made any decisions about outlets or social media."

"Other organisations like Telstra use Twitter and other ombudsman services use it," the spokesman said.

The social media review comes as an increasing number of disputes referred to the TIO are directed through its website, rather than by phone.

"Over the last two-to-three years we've moved from nine percent to 18 percent of complaints coming through the website," the spokesman said.

New TIO Simon Cohen said in an interview that one of the organisation's challenges is "to make sure the TIO's complaints gateways keep pace with new technologies so that we remain relevant, especially for young people who have an issue and may require our assistance."

Cohen said that making it easier for people to complain is only one part of increasing accessibility of the TIO to Australian telecommunications and internet users.

The spokesman supported this, saying the TIO is also trying to improve service accessibility for "cultural and linguistically-diverse communities".

"The Ombudsman's statement is just a recognition of the fact we need to be accessible to all Australians," the spokesman said.