Week Four

Introduction

In week three you learned how to complain on the phone. In week four we will look at writing letters of complaint.

Outcomes:

After this unit you should be able to:

• make a complaint
• write a letter of complaint

Tasks and Dates

This unit consists of six activities. The first activity is a discussion forum. In the second activity you will read a letter of complaint and fill in the missing phrases. You will also answer some reading comprehension questions. Then you will get familiar with the different parts of a letter. After that, you will study how to answer a letter of complaint. Finally, you will write a letter of complaint yourself.

Activity One

Do you prefer complaining on the phone or writing letters? Sometimes it is necessary to write a letter of complaint. When would you do that? Go to FORUM 4.1 and share your experience with your colleagues.

Activity Two

Now go to QUIZ 4.2 and read the letter of complaint. Some phrases are missing. Complete the gaps.

Activity Three

This activity is a reading comprehension activity. You should go to QUIZ 4.3 - Reading comprehension. Read the letter of complaint, decide whether the statements are true or false and explain some words.

Activity Four

Letters of complaint usually include five stages:

---

background / problem / solution / warning / closing

---

Can you identify the stages in the letter from QUIZ 4.2 and 4.3? Go to QUIZ 4.4 - Stages of a letter and try it.

When you finish go to QUIZ 4.5, study the phrases and match them with the five stages of a letter of complaint.

Activity Five

Now read the response Mr Birel received from the car rental company. Go to QUIZ 4.6 - Letter 2 and complete the gaps using the words from the box.

Dear Mr Birel,

I am writing to you today on 1._________________ of the car rental crew here at Pilsen Car Rental. You recently wrote us a letter 2.___________________your dissatisfaction with the state of the car you recently rented from our company.

You 3. _________________________in your letter that our car windscreen wipers stopped functioning and the brakes stopped working. 4. ________________________to the poor state of the car you had to pay for the car service in Berlin to be able to get back home.

Our 5. _________________show that our staff informed you that this particular car was not serviced but you insisted on having it since you were under time pressure. 6.___________________, we cannot have offices in all cities in Europe and this is why we inform our customers about the state of our cars. Even so, we are very sorry to put you to 7.______________________________.

On behalf of our company, I would like to offer you a 8. ____________________of 10% off on your next rented car. Please 9. _____________________ the enclosed certificate as our apology. Feel free to call our office at 888-777-6666 if you have any further questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Martin Novák

Martin Novák

Senior technician

Activity Six

Finally, it is your turn to complain.


Go to FORUM 4.7 and imagine that you attended a conference in Japan last week. The organization was very bad. You had no information about the local transportation and could not find the hotel.

1. Write a letter of complaint to the conference organizer.
2. Write a response to one of the letters in the forum.