Adjustment Business Letter

Here you respond to a claim letter and tell the customer how you plan to handle the situation. Regardless of what your final decision is, your purpose remains the same: show that you value the customer's business and concerns, and that your company is fair and reasonable. If the customer's complaint can be resolved, simply express your regret about the situation, state the correction you will make, and end on a positive note by encouraging future business with your company. If you cannot solve the customer's problem, then the letter becomes more difficult. In this situation, the letter will have four parts: attempt to meet the customer on some neutral ground: consider an expression of regret but not an apology, perhaps even thanking the customer for bringing it to your attention explain why your company is not at fault: explain the steps that led to the dissatisfaction clearly and concisely clearly state that your company is denying the request, and supply reasons in the letter for this denial: make this statement at the end, because if it is at the beginning, the customer may not finish the letter try to create goodwill for future business transactions: offer a special discount on a future transaction
Green Tree Freight Co., Inc. Columbus, Ohio 45453 (315) 565-6789 March 26, 19XX Mrs. Phoebe F. Hughes Complete Table, Inc. P.O. Box 3132 Austin, TX 78703

Subj.: March 24 letter about damaged freight

Dear Mrs. Hughes: I have just received your March 24 letter about the damaged shipment you received through Green Tree Freight and regret the inconvenience that it has caused you. From your account of the problem, I am quite sure that your request for the $240 adjustment on the damage to the 2 crates of Valjean Cristal stemware will be granted. A certain amount of breakage of this sort does unavoidably occur in cross-country shipping; I am sorry that it was your company that had to be the one to suffer the delay. I must remind you to keep the damaged crates in the same condition in which you received them until one of our representatives can inspect them. That inspection should take place within 2 weeks. If all is in order, as it sounds to be in your letter, you can expect the full reimbursement within 2 weeks after our representative's inspection. I hope this unfortunate accident will not keep you from having merchandise shipped by Green Tree Freight in the future.

Sincerely, David F. Morgan, Customer Relations Green Tree Freight Co., Inc. Columbus, Ohio 45453 315) 565-6789

Here is John Martin's letter replying to Mr. Brown's complaint about the damaged desks.

Great West Road London W25 Telephone 01-567 1112 Telex 80153 Telegrams Harp LDN

Ambrose Harper (Chairman) Hector Grant (Managing) William Buckhurst FCA (Secretary) Margaret Wiles

Directors:

Harper and Grant Limited

16th November, 197..

Dear Mr. Brown, We regret to hear that the twelve desks you ordered from us have been badly scratched. We have checked our records here and find that the components left our factory in good condition and were, as usual, carefully packed. We then asked our representative to try and find out whether the desks had "been damaged in transit or on arrival. He subsequently discovered that the goods had been unloaded by using hooks, although the packages were clearly marked with a warning against using hooks. We therefore do not feel in any way responsible for the damage. We appreciate, however, that you do not want to use these damaged desks as they are. If you will return them to us we will have them resprayed at our expense. We can assure you that the scratches will not show and that the desks will, in fact, appear just as good as new. Yours sincerely,

John Martin Sales Manager HARPER & GRANT LTD. George Brown, Esq., The Bruddersfield Building Society, 117 Bunyan Avenue, Bruddersfield, Yorks.