In the unlikely event that you are dissatisfied with the service provided by an NSI approved company and a complaint to the company has not been dealt with to your satisfaction, NSI offers a customer care service. For further information and to see if you are eligible to use this service, please see below.
Who is Covered?
You are covered irrespective of whether you are utilising a manned or security service from an NSI approved company.
A complaint may be investigated by NSI if:
- your security or fire system is currently covered by a maintenance agreement or is under guarentee with an NSI approved company.
- your manned service is provided by an NSI approved company.
Use Find a Company – located top right of our Homepage – to check if a company is NSI approved.
What is Covered?
NSI is concerned mainly with the investigation of technical complaints relating to electronic security and fire systems, ensuring they are installed and maintained in accordance with NSI codes of practice and the appropriate British and European Standards. NSI will not investigate and does not have power over:
- legal liability
- consideration of questions of a financial settlement between an NSI approved company and its customer
- discussions and negotiations regarding loss of claims or potential loss claims
- outstanding payments, or interpretation of NSI approved companies’ terms and conditions of contract
- other financial, commercial and contractual disputes which fall outside of NSI’s remit or jurisdiction
First Steps
In our experience, many complaints can be resolved without the need for NSI intervention. Initially, to avoid protracted discussions and to retain as much goodwill as possible, we would encourage you to raise the issue with the company’s local office. If that does not lead to a solution, you should then raise the issue with the company’s head office at whatever level is appropriate, confirming your points. (You should keep copies of the correspondence).
If that fails you should complete the on-line complaint form. The official NSI complaint procedure can then commence.
As part of the process, information and comments you make to NSI will be passed on to the NSI approved company.
Process
Please bear in mind that during our investigation of a complaint we need to give both parties (i.e, the person making the complaint and the NSI approved company) an opportunity to put across their case and we may need to put to you comments made by the NSI approved company, for your response. The fact that we pass on their comments to you, which may possibly conflict with what you have told us, should not be taken as meaning that we have taken the ‘side’ of the approved company, or that we believe the approved company’s version of events in preference to your version. In those instances where the facts are disputed, we do usually need to give each party the opportunity of commenting on the other’s position.
Outcome
In the vast majority of cases, complaints are resolved amicably by agreement and without too much difficulty. In a minority of cases, progress may not be made and an agreement not reached and in some circumstances, disputes may ultimately become cases for a court of law to deal with.
Where material facts are disputed and agreement cannot be reached, we may be unable to take either party’s side if corroborating evidence is not available. We are not in a position to uphold a complaint against an approved company unless our decision would be likely to “stand-up” if the approved company makes an appeal.
Making a Complaint
We are sorry your experience of using an NSI approved company has not met your expectations. If you would like to raise a complaint with us please complete the COMPLAINT FORM
Appeals
You can make an appeal against any Certification decision we have made regarding a particular clause within the NSI Regulations, Scheme Criteria or applicable standards. For a summary of the Appeals Process click here.
