Bài soạn correspondence

Writing 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:       Address The date Subject line or reference A formal greeting A formal expression to close the letter Signature       1–b 2–c 3–a 4–f 5–e 6- d Stages of making complaints: Background Problem – cause & effect Solution Warning (optional) Closing Background: describe the situation • • • • • I I I I I am writing to inform you that………… am writing to complain because………… write to you as………………… write to you to tell about…………………… am writing to complain about……………… Examples: 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 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 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 Effect: I am therefore returning the invoice to you for correction  This large number of errors is unacceptable to our customers, and we are therefore unable to sell these books  This error put our firm in a difficult position, as we had to make some emergency purchases to fulfill our commitments to all our customers This caused us considerable inconvenience  Even after spending several wasted hours trying to register in this way, the computer would not accept my application 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 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, January 2002, you will incur a 10% late payment fee Politeness:  The tone of complaint letters should not be aggressive or insulting  In addition, questions such as 'Why can't you get this right?' should not be included How to reply complaints Acknowledging receipt of a complaint letter Accepting a Complaint Rejecting a Complaint 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  Thank you for your letter of … regarding / concerning / in connection with …  I refer to your letter of … about / 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   Causes       We have modified / changed our We have implemented a system to To prevent re-occurrences we have set up a verification procedure Solutions     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   As a result of our investigation, we found that (Not: After our investigation ) 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