1. Jonathan Webb, Marketing Director of Executive Golfing Ltd, placed an order for an advertisement with an agency. On 15 May he stated the following requirements to Rachel Levy at RL Media:
• Publication: Ambition magazine
• Last date for submission of text: 10 June
• Issue date: 27 June
• Position: as specified - no alternative position accepted
• Payment: on last day of month following publication
• Advertisement to be approved before publication
It is now 5 July. Jonathan Webb has just
received a copy of the latest issue of Ambition magazine with the advertisement
in it. He has noticed that the advertisement did not appear as requested.
Read the letter that he sends to Rachel Levy,
pointing out the mistakes and refusing to pay the agreed price. Choose the
appropriate expression for each space.
2.2 Reorder the following, so that they show the usual structure of a letter of complaint:
- Explain what went wrong or why
you were dissatisfied.
- End
with an appropriate comment.
- Mention
the inconvenience caused.
- Begin
by regretting the need to complain.
- Suggest
how the matter can be put right or what your solution to the problem is.
Now look at Jonathan Webb's letter and check
how he organises his ideas.
2.3 Study the expressions in the Useful language box, then choose one of the situations below and write a letter of complaint:
2.4 Letters of complaint. Unscramble the sentences and re-order them to make two different letters of complaint. Write the sentence numbers in the table.
1. As a
matter of fact, the above invoice was settled on October 10, i.e., exactly five
days after our order had been received.
2. As a result, I will have to consider changing my supplier unless you
can guarantee that such errors will not happen again in the future.
3. As usual, we paid by bank transfer.
4. Every time, those errors have had an adverse effect on our production
schedules.
5. Further to our telephone call this morning, I am writing to complain
about a number of items which are either missing or faulty in the above order.
6. I am sorry to have to remind you that this is the third time we have
had occasion to complain of such mistakes.
7. Please find enclosed a detailed list of both missing and faulty
items.
8. We enclose a copy of a statement from our bank confirming that
payment was indeed made.
9. I hope you will take the necessary action to resolve this matter
speedily.
10. We would advise you to check your records carefully.
11. With reference to your reminder of December 1, it seems to us that
an error has been made.
2.5 Complaints and suggestions. Complete this business e-mail with an appropriate form of the verbs below:
Replying to Letters of
Complaint
2.6 Reply to the e-mail above (ex. 2.5).
Useful language
2.7 The text of a letter replying to a complaint is given. Complete it, choosing from the alternatives given to fill in the gaps.
2.8 Silvina Pietragalli recently flew home to Argentina. She had a very unpleasant flight and she wrote to Alpha Airlines to complain about it.
These are
the points she mentioned in her letter:
• a group
of young people were behaving badly;
• they were drinking alcohol and being very noisy;
• they were moving around the plane disturbing other passengers;
• passengers were unable to relax or sleep;
• the cabin crew were unable to deal with the situation;
• the situation not only unpleasant but dangerous;
• Ms Pietragalli is unlikely to fly with Alpha Airlines again.
The following reply was sent to Ms Pietragalli
by Alpha's Customer Relations Manager. Complete the letter with suitable words
or phrases from below:
compensate concerned the
difficulties you encountered in
the future
inconvenience looked
into once
again sincere apologies to my attention
to offer you unfortunately
Put the following points in order to show how Lisa
Kaplan's letter is organized:
- describe
what action has been taken;
- offer
some kind of compensation;
- apologise;
- refer
to the letter received;
- show
understanding and sympathy;
- apologise
again.
2.9 Write a suitable letter to deal with one of these situations. Invent an address for the people and companies concerned. Use some of the expressions from the Useful language box.
1. An
official of a national Health Authority is angry because deliveries of drugs
from your company arrived a month late. The drugs were needed urgently.
2. A
company buyer refuses to accept a shipment of personalised pens sent by your
company because the company's name has been misspelt on each pen.
3. An
accounts manager writes to you about errors in a sales invoice you sent to them
concerning the sale of 20 tables and chairs. They were billed for $40,800. The
correct amount is $4,800.
2.10 Complete this reply to the complaint about delivery in the exercise above.
