Complaining about NSAI registered organisation

M

MarySmyth

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National Standard Authority- Can anyone advise re. www.nsai.ie and a registered organisation.

They registered organisation claim to have a specified procedure/ system for dealing with complaints- however, in both 2009 and 2010, their own internal investigator found that they did not meet their own standards.

However, when a complaint was made to the NSAI, they simply replied that they had investigated the matter and could not reveal any further information- i.e. what was recommended, etc

Can anyone advise?
 
Is this registration to Management System Standard ISO 9000, or some other standard or perhaps it is some product certification?
 
MarySmyth said:
National Standard Authority- Can anyone advise re. www.nsai.ie and a registered organisation.

They registered organisation claim to have a specified procedure/ system for dealing with complaints- however, in both 2009 and 2010, their own internal investigator found that they did not meet their own standards.

However, when a complaint was made to the NSAI, they simply replied that they had investigated the matter and could not reveal any further information- i.e. what was recommended, etc

Can anyone advise?
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Usually Mary an organisation is audited twice yearly in order to maintain accredation to a particular standard, such as ISO 9001 as mentioned by ajapale. An auditor can pick up on issues but may decide they only warrant a minor non conformance raised against the company. This will not result in the organisations accredation being revoked.

Can you supply some more information regarding your issue, whether you raised the complaint etc. Was it regarding a service or a product ?
 
NSAI certification

Thank you for feedback- I would prefer to not state the actual organisation- it is a professional organisation that represents/ accredits its members, etc.

It is registered as follows...
Standard Number and Title : I.S. EN ISO 9001:2008 - Quality Management Systems.
Scope Of Registration : Provision of a process for the investigation/ resolution and determination of complaints made against members by clients, colleagues and other appropriate parties, in accordance with the principles of natural justice (subject to the powers and limitations imposed by statute/ common law).

Complainant submitted complaint to organisation- which took 3 years to partially resolve- they subsequently complained to an appeals officer, who found that organisation was indeed slow and this was corresponded to head of organisation. One year later, a similar finding was found by the same appeals officer...
 
ISO 9000:2008 requires procedures that cover customer complaints as well as customer compliments. if they are failing to follow procedure (your post suggests they are, but slowly), all they stand to loose is accreditation, this is very rare.

There are other organisations that represent or accredit members, the IAVI comes to mind, yet all they can do is ask their members to follow guidelines.

If they were failing to follow a standard, as in a safety standard for a helmet, then you have serious issues with which the NSAI can help you out.
 
ISO 9000:2008 requires procedures that cover customer complaints as well as customer compliments. if they are failing to follow procedure (your post suggests they are, but slowly), all they stand to loose is accreditation, this is very rare
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Indeed it is very rare. Companies are issued with non-conformance notices arising out of audits and these can be minor or major. Even with a major non-conformance the company will still be given time to rectify the issue before its accredation is affected.
 
MarySmyth said:
Scope Of Registration : Provision of a process for the investigation/ resolution and determination of complaints made against members by clients, colleagues and other appropriate parties, in accordance with the principles of natural justice (subject to the powers and limitations imposed by statute/ common law).
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Hi Mary,

Thanks for the information. So it is ISO 9000 Quality Management System and not some other management standard or product certification.

1st observation: the scope of the accreditation is very very narrow and somewhat prescribed by mention of "principles of natural justice (subject to the powers and limitations imposed by statute/ common law".

2nd observation: you mention that the companies internal audit found that they were not meeting the standard (in some regard). This should not come as a surprise as it is the function of the Internal (Quality) Audit to discover where the company is not adhering to its own procedures or these procedures are not conforming to the standards as set out in ISO 9000!

3rd observation: It appears to me that the complaint was handled in accordance with the companies procedures (albeit slowly). When the accreditation body (in this case NSAI but there are other competitors) assess the company they will renew the certification if there is evidence of the company meeting the standard.

aj
 
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