Complaint. Reasons for We have recently received several complaints from customers complaint about your fountain pens

Dear Sirs

Reasons for We have recently received several complaints from customers complaint about your fountain pens. The pens are clearly not giving

satisfaction and in some cases we have had to refund the purchase price.

Further details The pens are part of 4he batch of 500 supplied against our order number

8562 dated 28 March. This order was placed on the basis of a sample pen left by your representative. We have ourselves compared the performance of this sample with that of a number of the pens from this batch, and there is little doubt that many of them are faulty - some of them leak and others blot when writing.

The complaints we have received relate only to pens from the batch mentioned. Pens supplied before these have always been satisfactory.

Action required We therefore wish to return the unsold balance, amounting to 377 pens. Please replace them with pens of the quality which our earlier dealings with you have led us to expect.

Close Please let us know what arrangements you wish us to make for the return of these unsuitable pens.

Yours faithfully

Reply (accepting complaint)

Dear

Thank you for your letter dated 10 May pointing out faults in the pens supplied to your order number 8562. This has caused us a good deal of concern and we are glad that you brought this matter to our notice.

We have tested a number of pens from the production batch you mention, and agree that they are not perfect. The defects have been traced to a fault in one of the machines which has now been rectified.

Please arrange to return to us your unsold balance of 377 pens; the cost of postage will be reimbursed in due course. We have already arranged for 400 pens to be sent to replace this unsold balance. The extra 23 pens are sent without charge, and will enable you to provide free replacement of any further pens about which you may receive complaints.

We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused you.

Yours sincerely

Alternative reply (rejecting complaint)

If circumstances show that a complaint must be rejected, you must show an understanding of the customer's position and carefully explain why a rejection is necessary

Dear

We are sorry to learn from your letter of 10 May of the difficulties you are having with the pens supplied to your order number 8562.

All our pens are manufactured to be identical in design and performance and we cannot understand why some of them should have given trouble to your customers. It is normal practice for each pen to be individually examined by our Inspection Department before being passed into store. However, from what you say, it would seem that a number of the pens included in the latest batch escaped the usual examination.

We sympathise with your problem but regret that we cannot accept your suggestion to take back all the unsold stock from the batch concerned. Indeed there should be no need for this since it is unlikely that the number of faulty pens can be very large. We will gladly replace any pen found to be unsatisfactory, and on this particular batch are prepared to allow you a special discount of 5% to compensate for your inconvenience.

We trust you will accept this as being a fair and reasonable solution of this matter.

Yours sincerely

Complaint concerning quantity