Unit 6 complaints and adjustments

Task 1 Read the text and retell it:

Minor complaints can be emailed, but use letters when dealing with more serious ones. Before you complain, make absolutely sure your facts are right. If you have to respond to an unjustified complaint, be polite and remember that anyone can make a mistake.

Do not delay. Complain as soon as you realize a mistake has been made; delay weakens your case and can complicate the matter as details may be forgotten. There is no need to open by apologizing for the need to complain (We regret to inform you ...Jam sorry to have to write to you about...) as this also weakens your case. Do not be rude or personal. In most cases correspondence between companies takes place between employees in various departments. Nothing is gained by being rude to the individual you are writing to.

Never blame your own staff, and finally, while writing the complaint remember that complaints are not accusations. They are requests to correct mistakes or faults. They should be written remembering that the supplier almost certainly wants to put things right.

If you think you know how the mistake was made, you may politely point it out to your supplier. Sometimes, when a mistake occurs several times, you may be able to work out why it is happening more quickly than the company you are dealing with.

When answering a complaint, thank your customer for pointing out the problem. Sometimes you cannot deal with a complaint immediately, as the matter needs to be looked into. Do not leave your customer waiting but tell them what you are doing straight away. In this case, an email message is appropriate as the customer then knows immediately that you have received the complaint and are doing something about it.

If the complaint is justified, explain how the problem occurred and how you intend to deal with it. But do not blame your staff, you employed them, so you are responsible for their actions. So, having acknowledged your responsibility and explained what went wrong, you should put matters right as soon as possible, and tell your customer that you are doing so.

If you think the complaint is unjustified, you can be firm but polite in your answer. But even if you deny responsibility, you should always try to give an explanation of the problem.

It is useful when closing your letter to mention that the mistake, error, or fault is an exception, and it either rarely or never happens. You should also, of course, apologize for the inconvenience your customer experienced.

Task 2 Study the sample letters and answer the questions:

1. Why did Mr Hughes receive a wrong delivery?

2. What will Mr Clif do about it?

3. Why is Mr Cliff not going to send a credit note?

4. How will Mr Cliff help Mr Hughes not to make the same mistake again?

5. Which words in the email have a similar meaning to the following: a) investigated, b) told, c) collect, e) lost?

To…… Richard Cliff Subject: Wrong delivery (order No.1695) Dear Richard I received the consignment of dressing tables, Cat. No. DT154, to the above order yesterday. However, the delivery consisted of six heavy mahogany-finished dressing tables instead of the light pine-finished units I asked for. As I have firm orders for the design I asked for, I would be grateful if you could send my consignment as soon as possible, and collect the wrongly delivered goods. Thank you in advance. Robert Hughes

To…… Robert Hughes Subject: Wrong delivery (order No.1695) Dear Robert Thank you for yesterday’s email concerning the above wrong delivery. I have looked into it and find that our current winter catalogue lists the dressing tables you wanted under DT189. I think you must have used last summer’s catalogue. I have instructed one of our drivers to deliver the pine-finished dressing tables tomorrow and pick up the other consignment. Rather than sending you a credit note, I’ll cancel invoice No. D4451 and include another, No. D4487, with the delivery. There’s also a winter catalogue on its way to you, by post, in case you have mislaid the current one Richard Cliff

Task 3 Read the complaint about damage, answer the questions and reply to it.

1. How did the damage occur?

2. Why can’t many of the garments be sold?

3. Why does Mr Crane suggest that Sig. Causio has to deal with compensation?

4. What is enclosed with the letter?

5. What does Mr Crane intend to do with the damaged consignment?

6. Which words in the letter have similar meaning to the following: a) during transportation, b) assess, c) get in touch with?

F. Lynch & Co. Ltd

Head Office Nesson House Newell Street Birmingham B3 3EL Tel/Fax: +44 (0)21 236 6571 Email: pcrane@lynch.co.uk www.lynch.com Your ref: Our ref: Order No. 14478 15 August 20__

Satex S.p.A Via di Pietra Papa 00146 Roma ITALY Attn. Sig. Daniele Causio Dear Sig. Causio Our Order No. 14478 I am writing to you to complain about the shipment of sweaters we received yesterday against the above order. The boxes in which the sweaters were packed were damaged, and looked as if they had been broken open in transit. From your invoice No. 18871 we estimate that thirty garments have been stolen, to the value of £550.00. Because of the rummaging in the boxes, quite a few other garments were crushed or stained and cannot be sold as new articles in our shops. As the sale was on a CIF basis and the forwarding company were your agents, we suggest you contact them with regard to compensation. You will find a list of the damaged and missing articles enclosed, and the consignment will be put to one side until we receive your instructions. Yours sincerely Peter Crane Peter Crane Chief Buyer Encl.

Task 4 Study the sample phrases, write the letter of complaint and reply to it.

The language of complaints

1. We would like to inform you...

2. I am writing to complain about...

3. I am writing with reference to Order No. P32, which we received yesterday.

4. This is the third time this mistake has occurred and we are far from satisfied with the service you offer.

5. Unless you can fulfill our orders efficiently in the future we will have to

6. consider changing to another supplier.

7. Please ensure that this sort of problem does not arise again.

8. The mistake must be corrected as soon as possible.

9. There appears to be an error on the statement.

10. There seems to be some misunderstanding regarding terms of discount. Discount is deducted from net prices, not cif prices.

11. Could you tell your dispatch department to take special care when addressing consignments?

12. Could you ask your accounts department to check my code carefully in future? My account number is 246-642, but they have been sending me statements coded 642-246.

13. I think the reason that wrong sizes have been sent to me is because I am ordering in metric sizes, and you are sending me sizes measured in feet and inches. I would appreciate your looking into this.

14. Rather than send a credit note you could send six replacements, which would probably be easier than adjusting our accounts.

Replying to letters of complaints

1. Thank you for your letter of 6 August informing us that...

2. We would like to thank you for informing us of our accounting error in your letter of 7 June.

3. We are replying to your letter of 10 March in which you told us that...

4. I strongly object to the extra charge of £9.oo which you have added to my statement. When I sent my cheque for £256.00 last week, I thought it cleared this balance. Now I find...

5. We received your letter today complaining of an extra charge of £9.oo on your May statement. I think if you check the statement you will find that the amount due was £265.00 not £256.00 which accounts for the £9.oo difference. I have enclosed a copy of the statement and...

6. Thank you for your letter. I checked the item you referred to, the Scriva Pen, catalogue No. G14 on our price-list. The price of the pen has been increased from £25.00 to £30.00, not by £30.00, and I think you will agree that for a fountain pen this is not an unreasonable increase considering that the cost of our materials has doubled in the past few months…

7. While we cannot give you an explanation at present, we are looking into the problem and will contact you again shortly.

8. As we are sending out orders promptly, I think these delays may be occurring during transit. I shall get in touch with the haulage contractors.

9. Would you please return samples of the items you are dissatisfied with, and I will send them to our factory in Dusseldorf for tests.

10. The mistake could not have originated here, and must be connected with the dispatch of the goods.

11. The mistake was due to a fault in one of our machines, which has now been corrected.

12. There appears to have been some confusion in our addressing system, but this has been sorted out.

13. It is unusual for this type of error to arise but the problem has now been dealt with.

14. We have now checked our accounts and find that we have been sending you the wrong statement due to confusion in names and addresses. The database has been adjusted and there should be no more difficulties. Please contact us again if a similar situation arises, and thank you again for pointing out the error.

15. The paintwork on the body of the cars became discoloured because of a chemical imbalance in the paint used in spraying the vehicles. We have already contacted our own suppliers and are waiting for their reply. Meanwhile we are taking these models out of production and calling in all those that have been supplied.

16. The fabric you complained about has now been withdrawn.

17. We have closely compared the articles you returned with our samples and can see no difference between them. Therefore, in this case we are not willing either to substitute the articles or to offer a credit.

18. Our factory has now inspected the unit you returned last week, and they inform us that the circuits were overloaded. We can repair the machine, but it will be necessary to charge you as incorrect use of the unit is not covered by our guarantee.

19. In closing we would like to apologize for the inconvenience, and also point out that this type of fault rarely occurs in the Omega 2000.

20. Finally, may we say that this was an exceptional mistake and is unlikely to occur again. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

21. Replacements for the faulty articles are on their way to you, and you should receive them tomorrow. We are sure that you will be satisfied with them and there will be no repetition of the faults. Thank you for your patience in this matter, and we look forward to hearing from you again.