A letter of complaint P49

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A letter of complaint - P49

• Flat C, 13/G Sing Yuet Building
• 958 Oil Street
• Fortress Hill, Hong Kong
• 10th April 2005
• Manager
• Fiesta Restaurant
• 10 Oil Street
• Fortress Hill, Hong Kong
• Dear Sir/Madam
• Re Complaint about the poor service of your
  restaurant

Senders address
What is the structure for the letter of complaint?
Date
Recipients title Company name and address
Greeting
Subject heading
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A letter of complaint - P49

• I have been a patron of your restaurant for
  five years and I am writing to express my
  disappointment with the service I received under
  the new management during my recent visit on the
  evening of 8th April.
• First, the food was badly cooked. The steak
  I ordered was burnt and the soup was ice cold
  when it arrived. The dessert was a disaster.
  There was a fly in my sweet corn soup! I
  complained to the waiter, named Johnson, about
  it, but I only received a rude shrug in return.
  When he realised that I intended to inform the
  Food and Environmental Hygiene Department about
  it, he literally eliminated the evidence by
  removing the fly from my soup with his fingers.

Reason for writing
Details of the complaint (what happened)
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A letter of complaint - P49

• As a long-standing patron, I urge you to
  improve the quality of your service and the
  hygiene of your restaurant. I also expect a
  written apology from the rude waiter.
• I have spent many happy moments at your
  restaurant and I hope the new management will
  devote more resources to staff training and to
  the maintenance of hygiene which helped the
  restaurant to have an excellent reputation in the
  past.
• Yours faithfully
• Paul Watson
• Paul Watson

Action that you ask for (eg compensation,
apology) or suggestions that you want to make
Conclusion (optional)
Closing Senders signature name
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A letter of complaint

• Para. 1 give the reason for writing
• Para. 2 expand and give the details
• Para. 3 Action that you ask for
• (eg compensation, apology) or
  suggestions that you want to make
• Para. 4 end your letter

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• The use of tenses
• mainly past tense
• The use of modal verbs
• must, could, may, can bare infinitive
• Style
• formal
• To start the letter
• I am writing to complain about(the 5-day
  tour to Japan organised by ABC Tour Agency.)
• I am writing to express my dissatisfaction
  concerning
• I write to complain about
• I write to express my disappointment about
  
• I am very dissatisfied with the service
• I cannot/could not stand it.
• I hope the situation will be improved.

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To ask for actions (from least to most forceful)
(p50)

• I suggest that you
• I hope you will
• I believe the only possible way to sole the
  problem is to
• I urge the company to
• I strongly advise you to
• I demand (a refund)
• I expect something to be done to deal with the
  situation, or else (I will make a formal
  complaint to the Consumer Council)
• If you fail to do this, I will have no choice but
  to make a formal complaint to the Consumer
  Council

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P51 check your understanding.
What is the structure for this letter of
complaint?

• 25 February 2005
• Dear Sir/Madam
• Subject 5-day tour to Shanghai )Ref. No
  M214859)
• I am writing to complain about
• Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Date
Greeting
Subject heading
purpose
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P51 check your understanding.

• My first complaint was about
• Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Secondly,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  xxx
• Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• I also wish to

Details of the complaint
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P51 check your understanding.

• The tour was such a bad experience that I
  demand a refund from your company. If you fail
  to do this, I will have no choice but to make a
  formal complaint to the Consumer Council.
• Yours faithfully
• Paul Watson
• Paul Watson

demands
Closing Senders signature name
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Homework P52 write a letter a complaint

• Write a letter to the Director of the English
  Centre to complaint about the Joyful Summer
  English Course for students about to enter
  Secondary Five.
• 250 words
• Hand in on Friday (6th June, 2005)

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Refer to P31 for ideas

• Useful words and phrases for writing the letter
• Irresponsible
• Mock examination
• Noisy and crowded classroom
• Remote district
• A waste if time and money
• Consumer Council
• Chat
• Lessons shortened
• Useless
• Badly-organized
• meaningless

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Sample writing plan

• Subject heading (eg Re Complaint about the
  Joyful Summer English Course)
• Paragraph 1 Purpose of writing the letter
• To make a complaint
• Paragraph 2, 3 4 Details of the complaint
• Teachers were irresponsible
• Course was not well-structured
• Large class size
• Poor classroom
• Paragraph 5 Conclusion and actions that you ask
  for
• Restate disappointment of the course
• A refund of at least 30 of the course fees to
  all students.