Complaints

The process of handling complaints and objections of the Certification and Control Body Kronos Cert. includes the following elements and methods:

a) Description of the process for receiving, validating, investigating the complaint or objection and deciding what action should be taken in response to it?

b) Monitoring and recording complaints and objections, including the actions taken to resolve them,

c) Ensuring that any appropriate action is taken.

The recipient of the complaint or objection records all the required information from the customer to validate the complaint or objection. The Quality Management Manager is then informed, who, depending on which thematic areas of activity the complaints/objections are focused on, takes the following actions, in cooperation with a person not involved, i.e. the Technical Director or his Deputy and/or in cooperation with the Senior Management, if deemed appropriate:

· They investigate their reliability (in other words, whether they are correct and whether the Agency is at fault) and in any such case they identify the causes of their challenge. For this purpose, among other things, it may be decided to carry out an extraordinary relevant inspection (vertical and/or horizontal) which also includes checks/verifications of the results of conducted inspections, document checks and cross-checking of the contents of different files, etc.

· In the event that the correctness or reliability of the results of the inspection and/or the other services provided by the Agency is called into question from the investigation of a complaint, then the Technical Director or his Deputy examines the possibility that the results of other inspections were also affected customers of the same and/or other category, while the Quality Management Officer must then immediately notify any interested party whose results are found to be in doubt.

· They decide if it is required for the immediate corrective actions that can be taken to remove the short-term effects of the well-founded complaints, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant Corrective and Preventive Actions Procedure.

· Consider the possibility of requiring additional corrective and/or preventive actions to avoid the manifestation of the specific complaints from any customer in the future, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant Corrective and Preventive Actions Procedure.

· Inform the customer in writing (within 10 working days of the initial receipt of the complaint) of the complaint expressed, its validity and the remedial measures decided, following final conclusion in relation to it. If the thorough investigation of the merits of the complaint and/or the method chosen to deal with it, for objective reasons, become time-consuming procedures, the YDP informs the customer in writing and at regular intervals of the relative progress of the investigation and handling work.

· They inform the Organization's Top Management if this is deemed necessary, especially if direct communication with the customer is required to be done at a higher level of Management.

The customer can appeal the decisions of Kronos Cert. explaining in writing the reasons for his disagreement within thirty days from the day of notification of Kronos Cert.'s decision.

All costs of the appeal shall be borne by the customer.

The complaint is examined and evaluated by a competent, non-involved, member of the organization, who within one month must inform the customer of the company's actions in order to satisfy him and restore the company's reputation, with the aim of immediate resolution or reaching a settlement. In the event that no agreement is reached between the two parties, any disputes are resolved in the competent courts.

Disputes related to the costs of the appeal and those arising from the use of the mark, logo, name and other features of Kronos Cert. will be handled exclusively by the competent court of Athens.