Writing a letter of complaint

Sample question and answer

• You recently had a short holiday organized by TravelWise. The manager of the company sent you a letter asking to state the problems which had occurred during your vacation. Write a letter to the manager, explaining what the problems were and telling them what you want them to do.
• Write your letter. Don’t include any postal addresses. Write your answer in 140- 190 words in an appropriate style on the separate answer sheet. 

  Dear Sir/Madam,

  I am writing with reference to your letter, where you politely requested a feedback of  my recent vacation organized by TravelWise. As you already know I was displeased with numerous points.

  Firstly, the hotel I stayed was located in a run-down and dangerous neighbourhood, on few occasions  I was approached by a drug dealer and a beggar. When it comes to the room it was completely different from what had been presented in your brochure. Dirt, darkness and rats were my company throughout the stay, I actually changed rooms few times, however it seemed all the rooms were in similar condition.

  One of the reasons I had chosen your company was the free of charge spa and trips organized by your staff. It turned out that I had to pay extra for all of these services. And although it might be true that the water sports provided were amazing it does not change the fact my holiday was ruined by the above problems.

  I must ask you to refund all the costs of my vacation including extra charge for spa and trips please.

  I look forward to hearing from you soon.

  Yours faithfully,

  Sam Smith

Your task

You recently had lunch at a restaurant using a coupon that you bought on the internet from a company called Grupin. You were very disappointed with the restaurant. Read the Grupin advertisement for the special deal and the notes you have made. Then write an email to Groupin, explaining what happened and what you would like them to do.

Notes:

• The pizza was note home-made like they said
• The waitress was very rude
• It cost more to sit on the big terrace
• It wasn’t true that you could choose any small pizza as part of the set menu
• You want them to refund you half the cost of the meal. The meal cost a total of €12.50.

Useful language and tips

Dear Mr/Ms (surname)  –  Dear Sir/Madam  –  Dear Sir or Madam,

Reason for writing

I am writing to …

I am writing with regard to …

I am writing on behalf of …

 

Asking questions

I would be grateful if …

I wonder if you could …

Could you …? Could you tell me something about …?

I would particularly like to know …

I would be interested in having more details about …

Referring to their letter

As you stated in your letter, …

Regarding … Concerning … With regard to …

Complaining

I am writing to complain about …

You said … but in fact what happened …

We were supposed to stay with British families whereas we actually stayed in a guest house.

Closing

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Please contact me if you have any further questions.

Signing off

Yours sincerely, (If you started with ‘Dear + surname’) or Yours faithfully, (If you started with ‘Dear Sir/Madam’)

First name + surname

• Remember that in formal letters we use
• Formal vocabulary, usually not using phrasal verbs
• ‘Tolerate’ instead of ‘put up with’
• More complex sentence structure
• Knowing what a good reputation the restaurant has, I was disappointed with the service.
• Punctuation using semi-colons
• The library offers no facilities for borrowing videos; this is because of the high cost involved.