Certification Body inconsistent auditors

I'm worried about the level of consistency with the auditors in my certification body. One year I will get an auditor who I would describe as Laissez-faire, the next year I get one who raises such nit picky details it feels like they have gone into extreme detail and raised issues, which if I follow the letter of the standard I can't disagree with, but which don't add any value to the business.

The huge discrepancy between the audits is what disturbs me should I just accept that different auditors will always be of different abilities? I don't mind auditors having different bees in their bonnets so focusing on different areas of the business, its the lazy audit one year followed by the microscopic audit the following year which is bugging me. Is that all certification bodies? Do you think I have a route to complain to the certification body? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Teecem,

Unfortunately, this is a common issue between various auditors and all certification bodies. Multiple fellow users have discussed this issue in the past in the forums here.

Consistency varies due to the experience of the auditor, certification body selection of auditors, interpretation of the standard and sometimes (at worst) it all depends on the auditor's attitude on the day of the audit. 

All certifications require an auditee to abide completely to the current standard. In my personal experience, i have seen one auditor focusing more on specific sections while the other auditor (same certification/ next year audit) focusing on other section, while just breezing over those same sections/clause of the standard that the last auditor audited microscopically.

Yes, you should report it to the certification body, if you feel like that the auditor went beyond the scope of the standard, however, you will need to demonstrate your point of view to the certification body.

Just because the last Auditor was lazy and easy-going does not justify that the current auditor's (who is abiding to the standard, as it should be) is going an extra-mile to audit you.

It is not common, but it is comon with companies that don't pay them enough and treat them badly and there are too many of those.

I like CICS.

If you are going to file a complaint - don't do it with the CB that is the bad apple, complaint should go direct to SQFI.