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Complaints and Appeals

Last updated: 2 October 2026

Document Ref: SV2023-006-GENC-ORG-0006-01

Smart Veritas considers every complaint and appeal an opportunity to improve its procedures and services and to take corrective action. This document describes how we receive, investigate and decide complaints and appeals. It is provided to clients with our quotations and is available to anyone on request.

How to Submit a Complaint or Appeal

Send complaints and appeals to quality@smartveritas.com, or in writing to Smart Veritas B.V., Vasteland 38E, 3011 BM Rotterdam. Please include:

  • A clear description of the complaint or, for an appeal, the decision you ask us to reconsider and your reasons.
  • The relevant report or certificate numbers, project and dates.
  • Copies of any correspondence and any information that supports the complaint or appeal.

Complaints

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction with our work, our service or our staff, other than an appeal, to which a response is expected.

  • We acknowledge receipt within five working days.
  • We confirm whether the complaint relates to our activities. If it does, we gather the information needed to determine whether it is substantiated, and investigate it.
  • The resolution is made, or reviewed and approved, by a Director who was not involved in the subject of the complaint. Where both Directors were involved, it is reviewed by a competent person from outside the company who was not involved.
  • We aim to give you the outcome within 14 days of receipt. If we need longer, we tell you when to expect it and report progress.
  • Every complaint, its investigation and the actions taken are recorded and tracked in the Quality Management System Tracker and handled through our corrective action process.

Appeals

An appeal is a request by a client to reconsider a decision we have made on the conformity of an inspected or tested item, for example its acceptance or rejection against the specified acceptance criteria. An appeal is possible only where we have issued such a decision.

  • We acknowledge receipt within five working days.
  • We gather all the information needed to decide whether the appeal is valid, including the original records, the procedure and acceptance criteria applied and, where the item is available, re-examination.
  • The decision on the appeal is made, or reviewed and approved, by a person who was not involved in the decision under appeal.
  • We aim to give you the outcome within 14 days of receipt. If we need longer, we tell you when to expect it and report progress.
  • Where an appeal is upheld, we issue an amended report that identifies the report it replaces, and the cause is handled as a nonconformity. Appeals are recorded and tracked as complaints are.

Fair Treatment and Confidentiality

  • Submitting a complaint or appeal does not lead to any discriminatory action against the person or organisation that submitted it.
  • Information received with a complaint or appeal is treated as confidential. Information about a client received from someone other than the client is treated as confidential unless the source agrees otherwise.