Bài soạn correspondence

Complaints may be made by: The wrong goods have been sent  Poor service has been received  The quality of the goods unsatisfactory  The goods have been delivered damaged or late  T

Writing 4

Letters of complaint

Complaints may be made by:

 The wrong goods have been sent

 Poor service has been received

 The quality of the goods unsatisfactory

 The goods have been delivered

damaged or late

 The prices charged are not as agreed

Order in a formal letter:

Stages of making complaints:

1 Background: describe the situation

• I am writing to inform you that…………

• I am writing to complain because………….

• I write to you as………

• I write to you to tell about……….

• I am writing to complain about………

 I am writing to inform you that the gods we ordered from your company have not been supplied correctly

 I am writing to inform you of my dissatisfaction with the food and drinks at the 'European Restaurant' on

18 January this year

 I attended your exhibition Sound Systems 2002 at the Fortune Hotel (22-25 January) and found it informative and interesting Unfortunately, my enjoyment of the event was spoiled by a number of organizational problems

 I am writing to complain about the quality of the

goods you delivered to me yesterday.

2 Problem: explain the cause & effect

 You sent us an invoice for $10,532, but did not deduct our usual 10% discount

 We have found 16 spelling errors and 2

mislabeled diagrams in the sample book

 On 21 February 2008 we placed an order with your firm for 12,000 ultra super long-life

batteries The consignment arrived yesterday

but contained only 1,200 batteries

 Firstly, I had difficulty in registering to attend the event You set up an on-line registration facility, but I found the facility totally unworkable

us considerable inconvenience.

 Even after spending several wasted hours trying to register in this way, the computer would not accept

my application

3 Solutions: suggested by the writer

 Please send us a corrected invoice for $9,479

 I enclose a copy of the book with the errors

highlighted Please re-print the book and send it

to us by next Friday

 I am writing to ask you to please make up the shortfall immediately and to ensure that such

errors do not happen again

 Could I please ask you to look into these

matters

Warning: to emphasize the matter

Otherwise, we may have to look

elsewhere for our supplies

I'm afraid that if these conditions are not met, we may be forced to take legal

action

If the outstanding fees are not paid by

Tuesday, 8 January 2002, you will incur a 10% late payment fee

I look forward to receiving your explanation

of these matters

I look forward to receiving your payment

I look forward to hearing from you shortly

Sample letter sample.doc

Content

The content should contain enough details

so that the receiver does not have to write back requesting more

Legal action is not normally threatened in the first letter of complaint, unless the

situation is very serious

How to reply complaints

Accepting a Complaint :

Apology for the error or fault

Accepting the complaint

A short explanation of the fault /

Investigation to be made

Proposal to settle the difficulty

An offer to take goods back, make a

replacement, give a discount etc

A concluding paragraph aiming at retaining the goodwill of the customer

Rejecting a complaint:

Regret at dissatisfaction

Rejecting responsibility for the problem leading to the complaint

Reasons for the rejection

Proposal to settle the difficulty

If a third party (another person or organisation) is to blame, direct the complainer to that party

A concluding paragraph aiming at retaining the goodwill of the customer

Useful Expressions:

Acknowledging receipt of a complaint letter

regarding / concerning / in connection with …

relating to……

Apology for the error or fault

We must apologise for …

We sincerely apologise for …

Please accept our apologies for …

I would like to apologise for the error made

by our company in (verb+ing)

Accepting the Complaint

We agree that the usual high standards of our products / services were not met in

this instance

A short explanation of the fault

 Introductory phrase

 As a result of our investigation, we found that (Not: After our

investigation )

 Causes

 The error was caused by … / was due to …

 Apparently, the problem was the result of … / resulted from …

 The cause of / reason for the mistake was …

 Effects

 We have modified / changed our

 We have implemented a system to

 To prevent re-occurrences we have set up a verification procedure

 Solutions

 We have modified / changed our

 We have implemented a system to

 To prevent re-occurrences we have set up a verification procedure

 Assurances

 We assure you that this will not happen again

Investigation to be made

We are currently investigating the cause of

We will investigate the cause of

Proposal to settle the difficulty

As a gesture of our regret, we are

prepared to …/ we are willing to …/ we would like to …

To show goodwill, we will …

An offer to take goods back, make a

replacement, give a discount etc

We have dispatched the new items by

express courier They should arrive by

Friday, 4 January 2002

To show our goodwill, we would like to

offer you a 5% discount on your next order with us

Reasons for the rejection

This is because the guarantee period has expired

This is due to the fact that the guarantee period has expired

If a third party (another person or

organisation) is to blame, direct the complainer to that party

We therefore suggest that you contact

A concluding paragraph aiming at

retaining the goodwill of the customer

We look forward to receiving your further orders, and assure you that they will be

filled correctly / promptly

letter sample.doc