Complaints procedure
Four stages, named people, published timescales, and a route out of the academy if we do not put it right. Complaining costs you nothing and cannot affect your place, your grades or your certificate.
How to complain
In writing or out loud, in French or English, whichever is easier. An email to academy@smartsana.com, a call to the number in the footer, or a conversation at the campus that we then write down and send back to you so you can check we understood it.
You can skip stage 1 if your complaint is about your coach, or if you would rather not raise it with them. Say so and we will start at stage 2.
The stages
| Stage | Who | We acknowledge | We answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Raise it with your coach | Your coach | Same working day | Within 3 working days |
| 2 · The pedagogical head | For anything about teaching, assessment, a grade or an instructor | Within 2 working days | Within 10 working days, in writing |
| 3 · The centre head | For fees, refunds, conduct, exclusion, or an unresolved stage 2 | Within 2 working days | Within 15 working days, in writing, with reasons |
| 4 · Outside the company | A consumer claim under the framework law on consumer protection, or the competent Cameroonian courts. For a complaint about a certification exam, the vendor runs its own appeals process and we will help you find it. | n/a | Their timescales, not ours |
What this procedure is not for
- Your personal data. Requests to see, correct, delete or port your data, or to object to a use of it, go through the privacy route instead; see the privacy policy. You may also complain to the Personal Data Protection Authority once it is constituted.
- A vendor exam result. AWS, Microsoft, CompTIA, Meta, Databricks and the Python Institute set and mark their own exams and run their own appeals. We will help you find the right route, but we cannot change a result we did not award.
- Harassment, violence or safeguarding concerns. These do not wait for stage 1. Go straight to the centre head, or if the concern involves a learner under eighteen, see safeguarding.
What we do with complaints
We would rather hear it than not. A complaint about a stale date on this website, a confusing fee line or an instructor who was unclear is more useful to us than the same person quietly leaving. If we got something wrong we will say so, fix it, and tell you what we changed.