Complaints are incidents of grievance or dissatsifaction with Pinnacle Certification Inc. service.  Complaints may be:

• internal in nature – raised by a Pinnacle Certification Inc. staff member with regard to internal service, operations or employee performance
• external in nature- raised by Pinnacle Certification Inc.clients, suppliers or other affiliated organizations
• written
• verbal
• complaints raised by client’s customers or stake holders
• Appeals are a request for reconsideration of any decision made by Pinnacle Certification Inc. related to his/her desired certification status by the certified organization.

Any company or organisation who fails to satisfy an audit or surveillance may appeal against the decision. Where an appeal is received, Pinnacle’s appropriate appeal process and procedure will be followed.

The CEO will appoint the members of the appeals committee under the leadership of CEO who will hear the appeal and determine the outcome. In case the CEO is part of the audit/ certification team, CEO shall decide the investigating officer for the appeals process.

• All appeals shall be received by the CEO and details of appeals shall be recorded in the Certifications Register maintained by the CEO.
• CEO shall investigate the appeal made and inform the client about its plan of action for investigation and action there upon.
• An investigation report (Incident Report) for each individual appeal shall be maintained by the CEO. In case, any further corrective action is required post actions identified and taken based on Incident report – Corrective action procedure is implemented.
• A copy of the investigation report shall be sent to the client.
• In case of any further ambiguity, the same shall be reviewed by the President and appropriate decision arrived at.
• In case the issue still remains open; the same shall be intimated to the accreditation board for its valuable comments.
• All appeals made are collated and analyzed on a yearly basis.
• Necessary corrective actions shall be taken based on the appeal.
• Certification trends and corrective action taken shall also be reviewed as part of the Management committee meeting and Impartiality committee meeting.
• CEO shall ensure that details with respect to the appellant and actions there upon is not shared with the audit team members.
• CEO shall ensure that no discriminatory action is taken against the appellant.
• The client is made aware of the appeals process and is available upon request.

In case of an appeal made by a client against a decision made by auditor, lead auditor or certification committee, the appeal shall be recorded by CQO. Certification subcommittee shall review the appeal, investigate (which may include discussion with concerned client, respective auditor / lead auditor and review of audit report). Certification subcommittee may also direct any other lead auditor to visit the site and determine the validity of the appeal. The decision taken by Certification subcommittee shall be communicated to the client and to CQO for necessary action.

Pinnacle’s full Complaints and Appeals process available upon request.

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Certificate preparation and issue

• This involves preparation and review of certificate, certificate signature by CEO and updating the registrar of firms. In absence of CEO, COO can sign the certificate.

• • Certificates are issued to clients following initial audit, extension to accredited scope, triennial audit, upgrade on surveillance or change in company details (name, address etc).

• The signed certificate is sent to the client at his address or any other address he has specifically requested. The certificate shall not be issued to any other person without a written approval from the client. The certificate docket shall contain at least the following –

Change in Certificate

• The client may request for change in certificate. This may be due to:
• Change in ownership
• Change in name of the company
• Change in location
• Increase or decrease in scope (products, services offered etc.)
• Increase or decrease in locations (opening / closing of site etc.)

• Client may request for change in certificate or reduction / expansion in scope to CQO. He shall review the request and decide for a special audit if the next audit is not due in near future or if the next audit cannot be proposed. CQO also determines if the changed scope is within accreditation scope of Pinnacle Certification Inc.
• In case of change in name of company or location without any change in management, the client shall submit ROC approval for the change. Where the management has changed, the details of M&A and ROC approval shall be submitted along with the request.
• The duration for the special visit shall be decided by CQO and communicated to the client. The lead auditor submits a descriptive report detailing the changes, justification for reduction / expansion of scope and review of the impact of change in the scope (use of logos etc). Where expansion of scope is requested, the compliance to MSM for the respective activities and impact on other processes is verified. In case the special visit is carried out as a part of routine surveillance, the descriptive report is added to the surveillance report.
  • The report is reviewed as detailed. A new certificate is issued with the same expiry date on successful completion of the above process. CQO reviews the contract to determine change in contract . duration for further visits etc.

Suspension and withdrawal or cancellation of certificates.

• Grounds for action are brought to the attention of the CQO, who reviews the information and decides whether to proceed. Either way, he / she issues a letter to the client via registered mail / courier advising them of the details of the grounds for action and the decision on whether to proceed.
• If the CQO decides to proceed, the client must reply to Pinnacle Certification Inc. within fourteen days of receipt of letter.
• If the CQO determines that the action or position contained in the client reply is satisfactory, he issues a letter stating this, and mails it to the client via registered mail.
• If actions are required, due dates must be set and CQO must review the actions at those times to ensure that they are effectively completed in order to prevent suspension or cancellation.
• If the client does not reply in fourteen days, if the reply is not satisfactory, or if the actions required are not effectively completed in the allowed time, the CQO determines whether to suspend or cancel certification.
• If the decision is made to cancel certification, the MD is responsible for suspending the client or canceling the client from the Register of Approved Firms, advising the client by registered mail / courier, and publicizing the cancellation, if necessary. MD cannot over-rule the decision made by Director Ops.

The following reasons are considered grounds for suspension or cancellation:

• Major non-conformance(s) or effective corrective action not implemented within a specified time period.
• Improper use of the certificate, symbol or logo not remedied to the satisfaction of Pinnacle Certification Inc.
• Client ceases to supply product or service of the certified quality system for an extended period of time.
• Client’s certified management system has persistently fails to meet any of the requirements for certification including requirements for the effectiveness of the management system.
• Client fails to meet financial obligations to Pinnacle Certification Inc.
• Client makes a formal request to withdraw certification.
• Infringement by the client of any contractual conditions between the client and Pinnacle Certification Inc.
• Client is unable or unwilling to ensure conformance to revisions of standards.
• Existence of a serious complaint, or a large number of second- or third-party complaints, which indicate that the quality management system is not being maintained.
• Client does not allow routine surveillance to be conducted at the required frequency

The suspension or cancellation can be initiated if the client does not allow the routine surveillance to be conducted at the required frequency. The routine surveillance is carried out not more than 12 months from the last audit. In case the audit is not done within 12 months (13 months in case of yearly surveillance), the certificate is suspended and a letter is sent to the client requesting him to agree for the audit. In case of a delay up to 3 months (15 months from the last audit), the audit time shall be extended by 50% of the routine surveillance time (at least 1 day). Successful completion of the audit within 15 months shall not impact the certification.

• • In case the audit is not done within 15 months, the certificate is cancelled and the client shall be considered as a fresh case for certification.
  • The above are for special conditions like strike, natural calamities, business operations (case to case basis) etc.

Conditions for Suspension or Cancellation of Client Certification

• Subject to actions by the client, the following steps will be taken leading to possible suspension or cancellation of the client’s certification:
• Unless a reply is received to the letter accompanying notification within 14 days, certification will be suspended and a notification of suspension may be published at the discretion of Pinnacle Certification Inc.
• The client’s response to the accompanying letter will be reviewed and the proceedings may be put on hold while clarification is sought.
• Where mutually agreed-upon corrective action is to be implemented, a time period for implementation will be specified and a review of the corrective action undertaken at the appointed time. This may be the subject of a special surveillance visit or of review of submitted objective evidence, at the discretion of Pinnacle Certification Inc. Should the corrective action not be considered adequate or not be completed by the appointed time, certification will be automatically suspended.
• In the case of serious circumstances, Pinnacle Certification Inc. may invoke suspension during the period pending the implementation of corrective action.
• Where suspension has been invoked, unless otherwise specified, the client must advise Pinnacle Certification Inc. every 14 days of the current situation of corrective action. Failure to meet this requirement will result in cancellation of the client’s certification.
• Where suspension has been invoked due to failure to conduct surveillance audit, the client shall give justification for failure and offer suitable date. An additional day shall be added to routine surveillance days. The date shall not be later than 15 months from last audit. Failure to offer for audit within 15 months shall result in cancellation of certification.
• When corrective action to resolve the problem(s) taken by the client has been verified, certification will be resumed. The period of certification will not be revised to cover the period of suspension.
• Cancellation of certification will be invoked where, following suspension of certification, the client fails to respond to Pinnacle Certification Inc. communications within the 14-day grace period or fails to implement corrective action within the appointed time period.
• In extreme circumstances Pinnacle Certification Inc. may invoke the cancellation of certification with immediate effect without recourse to initial certification suspension.
• Cancellation of certification will require the client to assume the status of non-approval and return all certification documentation to Pinnacle Certification Inc.
• Use of certification documents, symbols, or logos by the client following certification cancellation may result in legal action being taken against the client.
• Re-approval after certification cancellation will be on the same basis, and follow the same process, as that of initial application for a new client. This will require a full assessment, with optional document review at the discretion of Pinnacle Certification Inc.
• The de-certification will be published as a separate list and will be available at the Pinnacle Certification Inc. office and made available upon request.
• The client has the right to appeal any decisions of Pinnacle Certification Inc. and a copy of the appeals procedures will be made available upon request.
• Certification Manager shall remove the companies where the certificate has been cancelled. During suspension, suspension remark shall be placed in the registered of approved firms.
• The client files for all cancelled cases shall be archived for a period of 3 months and then destroyed.
  • Reduction in scope of Certificates issued
• Pinnacle Certification Inc. shall wherever applicable reduce the scope of certification if during the time of routine surveillance audits / Re approval or Renewal audits it finds that the certified client has continually / seriously failed to meet the certification requirements for those parts of the scope of certification. The reduction in scope will be approved by the CQO.