Avda. del Ejercito 83 E-48013 Bilbao

The Sales Manager 15 October 19 —

Seymore Furniture Ltd.

Tib Street

Maidenhead

Berks. SL6 SDS

Dear Mr Harrison.

I am writing to complain about a shipment of tubular steel garden furniture we (1) ______________________yesterday against our invoice no. G 3190/1.

The crates (2) ________________on the outside, and looked as if they had been roughly handled. When we (3) _____________them, we (4) _____________that some of the chair legs were bent and rusty, and the fabric on the seating (5) __________, or (6) ____________signs of wear.

Two further crates from the consignment (7) ____________ yet, so we (8) _____________the opportunity of inspecting them. I (9) _______________the shipping company that we cannot accept this consignment from you, and they (10) ______________your insurers.

As we will be unable to retail this consignment in our stores, we are returning the shipment to you carriage forward, and we shall expect a full refund

Yours sincerely

C R. Mendez

Managing Director

Read the following extracts from letters of complaint. Write out the verbs in either the simple past, (e.g. he worked) or the present perfect, (e.g. he has worked)

1 Last year we (not/have) _____________________ any serious complaints from our

clients, but this year we (already/received)________________over twenty.

2 This is not the first time that we (have) ____________________problem with the shipping company. Three months ago they (lose) _______________________a consignment completely and they still (not/find) ___________________out happened to it.

3. I (look) ________________________ into the problem, and it appears that the catalogue (be) __________________out of date.

4 I (receive) __________________a consignment of furniture from you last week which we (order) __________________ on May 12.

5. The error (be) __________________ due to a fault in the computer system which we now (put) _______________________right.

6. Our engineers (recently/find) _____________________a fault with the batch of hard disk drives that we (manufacture) _____________________in June and July last year.

7I am writing to apologize for the defective items you (receive) __________________

last month, and to inform you that we (credit)____________________ the sum of £ 342.67 to your account

8. Our accounts department (inform) ____________________me that we (not / yet / receive) ________________payment for the items we (send) ________________________

9. We (not have) _____________________ any business from Winford & Co. since we (make) ______________________ an error with an invoice.

We (lose) _______________a number of orders since we (start) ____________having problems with the switchboard

Which words in each pair, if any, are not spelled correctly

1. a faithfully 4 a clerk

b faithfuly b clark

2. a address 5 a check

b adtess b cheque

3. a bussiness 6. a catalog

b business b catalogue

Compare the two lists of expressions commonly used in complaints. Match the informal phrases in the first list with their formal equivalents in the second.

1 it's not our fault

2 you should make it right

3 we want our money back

4 you have to pay when the goods are returned to you

5 we will sue you

6 you made a mistake

7 we won't buy anything from you again

8 the goods are rubbish

9 we're complaining about

10 why don't you pay attention?

a we are sending the consignment to you carriage forward

b we are not responsible for the error

c we would like to complain about —

d we will have to take legal action

e you seem to have made an error

f the products are not satisfactory

g we will not re-order

h you have not followed our instructions

i please correct the error

j we would like a refund

Write a reply from Mr Harrison to Mr Mendez.

• Thank him for his letter, and apologize for the damage.

• Explain that the goods were not old stock, but the damage appears to have happened while the goods were being transported. Assure him that you will deal with the transport company.

• Say that you will accept the goods carriage forward, and that you will send the refund by banker's draft as soon as you receive them.

• Close the letter in an appropriate manner.