Complaints
Complaints Policy
How complaints and appeals are raised, investigated and answered, and by when.
What This Covers
Complaints and appeals are both within scope, and both are welcome. Complaints cover any expression of dissatisfaction with a service arranged through chicagocmmcalibration.com, or with a certificate or report issued in connection with one. Appeals are requests to reconsider a decision already taken: a statement of conformity, the rejection of an item at review, or the outcome of an earlier complaint.
Both run through this policy, and a complaint is treated as evidence about the process, not as a nuisance.
Last updated: September 21, 2026.
How to Raise One
Complaints and appeals may be submitted through the contact page, which lists the contact details for the desk that receives them.
It helps to include:
- the quotation or certificate number
- the item concerned, and the date of the work
- what was expected, and what occurred
- the outcome sought
Complaints are accepted in any form. Acknowledgement is not delayed by a missing reference number.
Investigation and Response
Acknowledgement of receipt follows within three (3) business days.
What happens then is that the complaint is recorded, validated and investigated by a person who was not involved in the work being complained about, which is what keeps the review impartial. Where an external laboratory performed the work, the matter is raised with that laboratory in parallel, and its findings form part of the response.
The written response follows within twenty (20) business days of acknowledgement, setting out the findings, the decision and any corrective action. Any investigation that needs longer gets an interim response explaining why, with a revised date. Evidence is gathered and verified, and the outcome decided, by people with the competence to judge the technical question at issue.
Appeals
If the outcome is not accepted, an appeal may be made within thirty (30) days of the response. Appeals are reviewed by someone who took no part in the original decision, and the appeal decision is issued with reasons within twenty (20) business days.
Where the work was performed by an accredited laboratory, a matter that remains unresolved may be escalated to that laboratory's accreditation body.
Record Keeping and Fair Treatment
Complaints, appeals, investigations and outcomes are recorded and retained. The record is reviewed periodically for patterns that point to a systemic cause. Corrective actions are tracked to closure and their effectiveness is checked afterwards.
No customer is disadvantaged for raising a complaint or an appeal, and doing so has no effect on the handling of other work. The management arrangements this process sits inside are described on the quality system page.