2 module 8 letter of complaint rearanjat

7/28/2019 2 Module 8 Letter of Complaint Rearanjat

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Module 8. Letter of complaint


General remarks

Any human relationship, be it professional orpersonal in nature, is bound to give rise to complaints

sooner or later. Business relationships are permanentlyexposed to the risk of one of the partners discontentregarding a particular service or product. In spite of thisrisk, one should permanently keep in mind the fact thatthe errors which might occur are not intentional and thatthe partner is not in business to create problems forhis/her customers but to keep them satisfied.Consequently, whenever a reason for dissatisfactionarises, one should not automatically think badly about

his/her partner. Instead, he/she should signal theproblem in a polite manner and give him/her the chanceto explain the situation and/or undo the damage.

There are numerous cases of complaints and theirnature is equally various. First of all, the complaintscould be classified into two categories according to thequality of the one making the complaint:

a) complaints made by the buyer/beneficiary;b) complaints made by the seller/supplier.

The complaints belonging to the first category arerelated mainly to one of the following aspects of theproduct/service:

a) quality e) transportationb) quantity f) packingc) damage g) storing

d) time of delivery h) insurance

Marius Velic PARTNER TO PARTNER


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Here are a few samples of language used toexpress dissatisfaction in connection with one aspect oranother:

There seems to be some misunderstandingsregarding the number of items that weordered. To our great surprise, the quantitydid not correspond with the invoice.

It seems that some misunderstandingoccurred when delivering the consignment:our order was for 10 chestnut-brown wooden

tables and we received 10 black woodentables.

Apparently, some mistake has been made andthe shipment arrived without all the necessarydocuments. There is a discrepancy between the

packing list and the content of your invoice:200 pairs of leather shoes are mentioned onthe invoice but the list accompanying the

delivery mentions only 150 pairs.On unloading the consignment from the ship,we found out that a surplus of 1500 crateshas been delivered. Unless we agree on aconsistent discount, we cannot take over thissupplementary quantity.

A considerable number of boxes arrived in abadly damaged condition. As a consequence,the content of these boxes was seriouslyaffected.

As far as the complaints belonging to the secondcategory are concerned, they may occur mainly due toone of the following reasons:

a) delayed paymentb) non-payment

c) wrong documents



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The most frequent reason that may determine asupplier to write such a letter is the payment. Mostoften than not, suppliers are complaining about delayed

payment. Here are a few examples:

It seems that your Accounting Department mayhave overlooked invoice no. HJ 2056 for 3500 (seeenclosed copy) which was due three weeks ago.

May we call your attention to our invoice no. LP14355 for 1320 dated 9 September 2004which should have been settled by 28 October.

We would like to remind you that your accountshows a balance of $ 600 in our favour as youfailed to open the L/C within the 30 day intervalas we have agreed.

Since the financial settlement is now threemonths overdue, we assume that amisunderstanding occurred and you may haveoverlooked it.

Would you instruct your Accounting Departmentto either make the arrangements for immediate

payment or let us have an explanation regardingthe outstanding invoice no. TC 33702.

This type of letter of complaint regarding thepayment is also known as a reminder. If the paymentissue is not settled as a result of the first reminder, the

general practice is to send another two reminderscharacterized by a gradual change in the firmness ofthe tone: from a general polite in the first reminder tothe clear mentioning of legal action in the third one.

A letter of complaint (no matter what its reasonmight be) displays the same general parts of anybusiness letter and a structure common to all businessletters.



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Structure

Most often than not, letters of complaint are very

direct but not rude; thus, the first paragraph statesthe nature of the complaint, without any unnecessarypreamble. The general tone and vocabulary should notbe aggressive or offending keeping in mind the fact thatthe seller/supplier is as interested as you are in solvingany unpleasant incident. As you will see from thesamples, accusatory terms are to be avoided; thecomplaints should not be made personal but, instead,

passive voice and impersonal structures are preferredas they seem to shift the responsibility from theperson reading the letter to the situation itself.

Since the purpose of the letter of complaint is tofix something that has gone wrong, it would be a goodidea to offer a helping hand to the receiver of the letterby letting him/her know whether you suspect the causeof the inconvenience and, if possible, it would also be

useful to suggest a solution if you think that you haveidentified the best suitable manner to correct themistake. Very frequently though, we may not knowwhat causes the inconveniency; in such a case the bestapproach is to signal the existence of a problem andexplain it to the supplier and let him/her take whatcourse of action would seem appropriate.

As far as the reply to a letter of complaint isconcerned, this should be done in an elegant mannerafter having taken a number of steps:

a) verify if the complaint is justified;b) thank the customer for pointing the mistakeout;c) explain the occurrence of the mistake (withouttrying to place all the blame on the shoulders ofyour employees;



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d) let the customer know that you are making allthe necessary arrangements for the error to beeliminated and offer to compensate for any of the

resulting inconveniences (if necessary).If the letter of complaint proves to be unjustified,

the tone of the reply letter should be firm and politeexplaining the reason for which you deny responsibility.Even if you deny responsibility and refuse to take theletter of complaint into consideration, you should givean explanation of the problem and, if possible, refer tosome other possible causes of the inconvenience.

When replying to an unjustified complaint, youshould permanently keep in mind that the personsigning the complaint is your customer and thatanything he/she says about you and/or yourcompany/services/products can and will influence yourimage and reputation. Special attention should also bepaid to numbers and data since they tend to be themajor source of misunderstandings.

The following pages offer some sample letters ofcomplaint and replies to such letters.



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44 Domneasc StreetGalai, 600424

ROMANIASoftum Ltd. 15 December, 200412 Blossom StreetBraov, 500404Romania

Attention: The Sales Department

Dear Mr. Jim Turpin,

Subject: Our Order No. 2553/28 September, 2004

I am writing to you to complain about the consignment that youdelivered to us two days ago. Instead of the light sweaters that we wereexpecting, the boxes contained running shoes. I am sure that there musthave been a misunderstanding either in the transportation or in the

packing department.

Please look into the matter and see that either of these two solutions isimplemented:(i) replace the entire consignment with the items we originally asked

for within 4 days since receiving this letter of complaint;(ii) if the previous solution is not possible, we would like a total refund

plus 3% losses discount.

You will find enclosed a copy of our order and invoice correspondingto the items in case.

Yours sincerely,

Mircea CodreanuMr. Mircea CodreanuChief of Marketing Department

Encl.: 1 copy of Order No. 2553/28 September, 2004,1 copy of Invoice No. SV 2925530/28 September, 2004


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S o f t u m L t d .

12 Blossom Street, Braov, 500404Romania

CODREX Co. 18 December 200444 Domneasc StreetGalai, 600424ROMANIA

Attention: Chief of Marketing Department

Dear Mr. Mircea Codreanu,

Thank you for pointing out the error that has occurred regarding the 13December consignment. We have looked into the matter and found outthat there has been a misunderstanding as far as your order wasconcerned: it was mixed up with a different one.

The consignment will be replaced as you suggested as a matter offact, the shipment should arrive in the same day with this letter and to

show you our good will, we offer you the possibility to pay within 40days from delivery.

We express our sympathy for the inconvenience that we might havecaused and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Jim Turpin

Mr. Jim TurpinChief of Sales Department


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F u r n i t u r e I m p e x L t d .

115 Jasmine Street, Sibiu 730221ROMANIA

Nightfall Caf 20 June, 20047 Main StreetCraiova, 200466Romania

Dear Mrs. Angela Bloomfeld,Subject: Our Invoice No. 10437/18 May, 2004

I am writing to you to complain about a delay in payment. It seems thatyour Accounting Department may have overlooked out invoice No.10437/18 May, 2004 for 2200 (see enclosed copy) which was duethree weeks ago.

Please look into the matter and make the necessary arrangements to fixas soon as possible what surely must have been a misunderstanding.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Sergiu Pinoche

Mr. Sergiu PinocheSales Manager

Encl.: 1 copy of Invoice No. 10437/18 May, 2004,


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Nightfall Caf7 Main StreetCraiova, 200466Romania

Furniture Impex Ltd. 25 June, 2004115 Jasmine Street,Sibiu 730221ROMANIA

Attention: Sales Manager

Dear Mr. Sergiu Pinoche,

Subject: Outstanding invoice

We acknowledge we received your letter dated 20 June, 2004 in whichyou called our attention on an outstanding invoice. We have checkedour records and there was no misunderstanding regarding your invoice:the payment was made on time (see enclosed copy of money transfer

order).We have reasons to believe that the error must have appeared in the

banks records. We suggest that you should contact the bank regardingthis issue since we suspect that they have forgotten to send you anadvisory note.

We regret any inconvenience that your company might have sufferedand look forward to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,Angela Bloomfeld

Mrs. Angela BloomfeldGeneral Manager

Encl.: 1 copy of Transfer Order No. 4825/25 May, 2004,

2 module 8 letter of complaint rearanjat

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