4. LETTER OF COMPLAINT.

REPLYING TO A LETTER OF COMPLAINT

I. What is a letter of complait!
II. G"i#elies
III. $tr"ct"re a# "sef"l %oca&"lar'
I(. Repl'i) to a letter of complait*
(. Acti%ities
(I. +ome,or-
I. What is a letter of complait!
A letter of complaint is a letter written by a consumer/ client/ partner to a manufacturer/ retailer/ provider
regarding a problem with a product or service; it is usually written with the expectation that corrective action will
be taken. The problem may regard:
.quality of the goods/ services
quantity of the goods
goods delivered damaged or late
wrong goods sent
faulty price invoicing and other documents etc.
II. G"i#elies
!. make sure your complaint is "ustified;
#. write clearly and to the point both regarding your complaint and the course of action you want the
recipient to take;
$. be courteous show consideration for your correspondent even though your business has been
pre"udiced;
%. adopt a suitable tone; remember that any message can be conveyed without giving offence without
sounding aggressive tactless rude.
III. $tr"ct"re a# "sef"l %oca&"lar'
.. Itro#"ctio
The introductory paragraph should clearly show what your reason for writing is.
We would like to inform you that the quality is decidedly inferior to any other previously supplied/ leaves
much to be desired/ is far from being satisfactory/ fails to meet our expectations/ is very poor in
proportion to the price
We are making a claim on you for the inferior quality of the goods you delivered
We have to advise you that the goods supplied as per Contract No have some defects.
We are writing to complain of some serious defects in the products delivered
With reference to our order of we have not yet received any news concerning
We regret to inform you that the goods you ordered have not yet arrived/ have not yet been delivered.
/. 0o#'
The body should consist of clear well&linked paragraphs.
a. 'omplaints about quality and their ad"ustments
!he goods we have received do not tally with the sample we had when the contract was concluded
!he bulk of the goods delivered is not up to sample/ does not correspond with the sample
"n comparing the goods received to the sample we were surprised to find that
"ur laboratory reports that the content is not up to the percentage agreed
!he packing of the goods is inadequate and unsuitable to local conditions.
We very much regret that we have to complain about the way in which the consignment #ust received has
been packed.
!his is a clear case of damage for which the carriers must be made responsible because the damage
arouse from negligence.
b. 'omplaints about quantity and their ad"ustments
We shall be glad if you make inquiries about the missing products.
Could you please deliver a supplementary quantity that may compensate for the shortage
We regret we cannot take over this supplementary quantity as we do not have the necessary storage
facilities.
c. 'omplaints about delay in delivery and their ad"ustments
When placing this order with you we particularly stipulated for delivery within .weeks
!he contract stipulated delivery in
We are now completely out of stock of some items and are losing trade because of this.
$our delay in delivering the goods is very inconvenient to us/ causes us considerable inconvenience
%n explanation of the delay would be much appreciated
1. E#i)
The ending generally comprises a reference to the action you expect to be taken as a result to your complaint
i.e. receive an apology a refund a compensation etc.
!he best solution would be for us to return the wrong articles to you postage and packing forward.
%lthough the quality of these goods is not up to that of our usual lines we are prepared to accept them if
you agree to reduce the price by
%s the quality of the goods received is inadequate we have no option but to send them back and to debit
you with the transport expenses.
&nder these circumstances we feel obliged to place our order with another supplier
We must request you to trace the goods as they are urgently required.
%s the delay in delivery lasted over we must ask you to pay us damages in accordance with clause
no.
We regret that unless we hear from you we will be obliged to terminate the agreement.
We express our deep concern over this issue and expect that you will look into the matter without delay.
We shall be grateful if you would let us know your decision
We shall be glad to know when we may expect to receive ..
I(. Repl'i) to a letter of complait*
.. Itro#"ctio
We would like to thank you for informing us of our error in the delivery of wrong goods in your letter
of.
We very much regret that you are not satisfied with the latest consignment we supplied.
We are sorry to see from your letter of that you complain of the bad quality of
We were sorry to receive your complaint that the material you received was not of the quality expected.
We very much regret having given you cause of complaint
We thank you for your letter and we apologi'e for overshipment
We have received your letter dated (( )ebruary (*+* claiming for shortage in weight in the consignment
of goods
We thank you for your letter and we apologi'e for the missing goods
We regret the delay and trust that you have not been caused any serious inconvenience.
We apologi'e for having sent the goods too late.
We are sorry for not having executed your order as agreed.
/. 0o#'
a. Ad"ustment of complaints concerning quality
We must admit your complaint is #ustified.
%s regards the . there appears to have been some confusion in our .
,n our opinion you are not right to say that.
,n answer to your complaint of we can only say that the goods were carefully examined before being
dispatched.
%s we are not in the position of giving you an explanation at present we promise you .
We are prepared to compensate damages for the loss providing our specialist finds out that the complaint
is #ustified.
b. Ad"ustment of complaints concerning quantity
We shall arrange the short delivered goods to be urgently posted.
We agree to supply the missing parts and to give you the necessary technical advice regarding
$our complaint is #ustified and we are shipping the missing products on the first available vessel.
We greatly regret that you received only ....of the products ordered. %fter investigating we arranged for
them to be delivered in
We are taking the matter up with the carriers and will advise you without delay.
%s soon as we received your letter we got in touch with the packers and asked them to look into the
matter
We have passed on your complaint to the firm of packers that handled this consignment and have asked
them to look into the matter.
)or us it is obvious that the damage occurred at your end because we hold a receipt from that the
goods were received by them in order.
c. Ad"ustment of complaints concerning delay in delivery
We are surprised at learning that our consignment has not reached you yet- we can promise you that we
are trying to trace it without delay.
%s we are sending out orders promptly we think this delay may have something to do with the .
!he delay was entirely due to reasons beyond our control.
We have experienced difficulties resulting from a shortage in raw materials.
We have been able to cope with these difficulties and managed to forward the goods ordered yesterday.
We assure you that we effected delivery in accordance with the terms stipulated in the contract.
d. Ad"ustment of complaints concerning faulty price invoicing and other documents
1. E#i)
We ask you to accept our apologies for this error.
We are sure you will be satisfied with our solving the error and we assure you that there will e no
repetition in the future.
We promise to increase our control for future orders.
We hope you will be satisfied with this solution.
.lease accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused. We hope you will give us an opportunity to
regain your confidence.
(. Acti%ities
!. (ead the following sample letter of complaint and then answer the questions:
Artwrite )td.
#*# +isita ,treet
-lympia .A /0*1!
2ackson 3rothers
$%04 (ochester ,treet
3irmingham 3( !#11/
!1
th
of April #1!1
5ear ,ir or 6adam
7roblems regarding products delivered
.e have recently received several complaints from customers about your fountain pens. The pens are clearly not
giving satisfaction and in some cases we have had to refund the purchase price.
The pens complained about are part of the batch of *11 supplied against our order number 0*8# dated #0 6arch
#1!1. This order was placed on the basis of a sample pen left by your representative. .e have ourselves
compared the performance of this sample with that of a number of the pens from this batch and there is little
doubt that many of them are faulty i.e. some of them leak and others blot when writing.
The complaints we have received relate only to pens from the batch mentioned above as pens supplied before
these have always been satisfactory.
.e therefore wish you accepted return of the unsold balance amounting to $44 pens and replace them with pens
of the quality our earlier dealings with you have led us to expect. 7lease let us know what arrangements you want
us to make for their return.
9ours faithfully
Robert Hart
(obert :art
'hief 3uyer
a. .ho is going to read this letter;
b. .hat is the purpose of the letter;
c. .hat is the tone of the letter;
d. :ow is the letter structured; .rite one phrase/ sentence summari<ing the content of each paragraph:
7!. ===================================
7#. ===================================
7$. ===================================
7%. ===================================
#. >se the words in the box to fill in the gaps for the following possible replies to the letter of complaint
above:
a.
carriage notice inconvenience perfect dated charge production fault deal unsold
2ackson 3rothers
$%04 (ochester ,treet
3irmingham 3( !#11/
6r. (obert :art
'hief 3uyer
Artwrite )td.
#*# +isita ,treet
-lympia .A /0*1!
!$
th
of April #1!1
5ear 6r. :art
7roblems regarding products delivered
Thank you for your letter ?!?.. !1
th
of April #1!1 pointing out faults in the pens supplied to your order number
0*8#. This has caused us a good ?.#?..of concern and we are glad that you brought this matter to
our??.$??.
.e have now tested a number of pens from the ?.%??batch you mention and agree that they are not ?.*??..
The defects have been traced to a ??.8??in one of the machines which has now been rectified.
7lease arrange to return to us your ??4?..balance of $44 pens ?..0??forward. .e have already arranged
for %11 pens to be sent to replace this unsold balance. The extra #$ pens are sent without ??./?..and will
enable you to provide free replacement of any further pens about which you may receive complaints.
.e apologi<e for the ?..!1??.this has caused you.
9ours sincerely
Peter Langer
7eter )anger
7( (epresentative
b.
unlikely trouble reasonable sympathi<e learn escaped difficulties store discount
compensate
2ackson 3rothers
$%04 (ochester ,treet
3irmingham 3( !#11/
6r. (obert :art
'hief 3uyer
Artwrite )td.
#*# +isita ,treet
-lympia .A /0*1!
!$
th
of April #1!1
5ear 6r. :art
7roblems regarding products delivered
.e are sorry to ?.!?..from your letter of !1
th
of April #1!1 of the ?.#??..you are having with the pens
supplied to your order number 0*8#.
All our pens are manufactured to be identical in design and performance and we cannot understand why some of
them should have given ?.$??to your customers. @t is normal practice for each pen to be individually
examined by our @nspection 5epartment before being passed into ??%??. :owever from what you say it
would seem that a number of the pens included in the latest batch ??.*??.the usual examination.
.e ?..8??..with your problem but regret that we cannot accept your suggestion to take back all the unsold
stock from the batch concerned. @ndeed there should be no need for this since it is ??4??.that the number of
faulty pens can be very large. .e will of course gladly replace any pen found to be unsatisfactory and on this
particular batch we are prepared to allow a special ??0??.of *A to ?../??for your inconvenience.
.e trust you will accept this as being a fair and ??.!1?? solution of this matter.
9ours sincerely
Peter Langer
7eter )anger
7( (epresentative
1. Rephrase the follo,i) seteces so as to so"# polite*
a. 9ou must correct your mistakes as soon as possible.
b. 9ou made a disgusting error in the delivery of our goods.
c. 9ou "ust do not understand the terms of discount so you disappoint us.
d. @t is not our fault it is probably the fault of your dispatch department.
e. This is "ust impossibleB .e are still unhappy about these services charges.
f. And you promised everything would be ok for those productsB
g. @ncrease your quality or else there is no other business @ will do with you.
h. .hen are you going to refund us;
i. .e do not want a 8A discount but something bigger.
". 9our prices are not competitive.
4. +ere is a messa)e ,ritte &' Pa"l West2 Chief $alesma for $il%er Office $"pplies2 to his collea)"e
a# frie# 3a%i# 4ac-so2 Chief 0"'er for $il%er Office $"pplies.
5ave
9ou werenCt in when @ dropped by. @ "ust wanted to have a word with you about these 7rotecta dust&covers
from perfect 7lastics D.hat a misnamed companyBE. .e "ust canCt get rid of them.
To put it bluntly our customers think they are rubbish Dand so do @E. And they donCt want to take them back.
There are hundred still dumped at the back of the warehouse.
The trouble is that they keep falling off the key&boards F they "ust wonCt stay put. ThatCs because theyCre very
poorly designed. -n top of that when they hit the floor even a carpeted floor they shatter like glass. TheyCre
really no good at all and theyCre giving us a bad name.
'anCt you get the company to take them back; 'anCt you get our money back or swap them for plastic wallets
F theyCre ok sell like hot cakes in fact. The 7rotecta dust&covers look nothing like the picture in the catalogue
by the way.
7aul
3a%i# 4ac-so is s"ppose# to ,rite the letter of complait to Perfect Plastics plc2 Ga)ham Wa'2
Li%erpool2 Wales2 $FC 5. Write the letter of complait2 "si) the follo,i) formal e6"i%alets for the
iformal e7pressios i Pa"l8s ote.
with reference to
have proved to be one of the less popular
items in our range
our stocks are still high
our customers do not speak highly of
them
we are entirely satisfied are extremely
fragile
request a refund
not suitable for our customers/ needs
do not fit very well due to design faults
the illustration in the catalogue is quite
misleading
maintain our reputation of top0quality
goods
in great demand
9. Traslate ito E)lish*
a.
,timaGi domni
Trebuie sH vH aducem la cunoItinGH cH ultimul transport de anvelope livrate de dvs. nu este la nivelul standardelor
obiInuite. Je&am putut ba<a Kntotdeauna pe calitatea superioarH a produselor dvs. Ii suntem de<amHgiGi de
situaGia ivitH.
+eGi gHsi anexat un raport al experGilor noItri locali care au verificat cu atenGie produsele.
+&am fi recunoscHtori dacH aGi avea amabilitatea sH expediaGi urgent un transport de Knlocuire a celor #11 de
anvelope pentru compensare.
'u respect
?..
Anexat: (aport de experti<H.
&.
5omnule 5irector
+a aducem la cunostinta faptul ca echipamentul de aer conditionat care ne&a fost livrat de dumneavoastra la
data de #1.1$.#1!! conform contractului nr. #$84* din data !*.10.#1!1 pre<inta urmatoarele defectiuni:
imposibilitatea de a utili<a toate programele preva<ute <gmotul suspect la pornire ineficienta pentru spatiul pe
care il avem si a carui marime v&a fost comunicata.
5efectiunile descrise au aparut in timpul perioadei de garantie fapt pentru care va rugam sa trimiteti de
urgenta la sediul nostru specialisti care sa le remedie<e.
5eoarece echipamentul a fost furni<at cu vicii ascunse pe care le&am descoperit la doua <ile dupa primire si a
activitatea anga"atilor din acel spatiu are de suferit solicitam ca pana la data de 1!.1%.#1!! sa finali<ati
remedierea defectiunilor sau sa inlocuiti echipamentul cu altul nou.
'ontam pe promptitudinea dumneavoastra in remedierea defectiunilor semnalate.

'u stima
???..
6anager

(I. Portfolio
9ou have "ust returned from a foreign holiday you booked through a well&known holiday company. Jeither
the resort nor the hotel came up to your expectations. 9ou have decided to write a letter to the holiday company
complaining about aspects of your holiday and outlining the reasons for your dissatisfaction. ,uggest what steps
you think the company should take to rectify the problems for holiday makers in the future and say what kind of
compensation you expect.
.rite your letter in #$1 words.