Making complaints

2.1 Jonathan Webb, Marketing Director of Executive Golfing Ltd, placed an order for an advertisement with an agency. On 15 May he stated the following requirements to Rachel Levy at RL Media:

• Publication: Ambition magazine

• Last date for submission of text: 10 June

• Issue date: 27 June

• Position: as specified - no alternative position accepted

• Payment: on last day of month following publication

• Advertisement to be approved before publication

It is now 5 July. Jonathan Webb has just received a copy of the latest issue of Ambition magazine with the advertisement in it. He has noticed that the advertisement did not appear as requested.

Read the letter that he sends to Rachel Levy, pointing out the mistakes and refusing to pay the agreed price. Choose the appropriate expression for each space.

Rachel Levy

RL Media

West View Rd

London

W16PL 5 July

Dear Rachel,

I have ¹(just received / just got) the latest issue of your magazine and checked our advertisement. I'm ²(unhappy / sorry) to tell you that a number of mistakes have been made by RL Media. I wrote to you on 15 May ³(confirming / saying) the details of the advertisement. ⁴(Unfortunately / And) the following mistakes have ⁵(come up / occurred):

• The advertisement appeared in the issue of 4 July instead of 27 June.

• It was on a left-hand page instead of a right-hand page.

• It was placed in the last part of the magazine. We ⁶(said / specified) that it should be in the front part.

We ⁷(said strongly / made it clear) that the correct position of the advertisement was ⁸(absolutely vital / the most important thing). As you can imagine, the incorrect placing of the advertisement has caused us great ⁹(trouble / inconvenience) and will no doubt ¹⁰(affect / hurt) sales of our new product range. Due to all these errors, we ¹¹(don't want to/ feel unable to) pay the full cost of the advertisement. I am, however, prepared to pay 40% of the cost and trust that you ¹²(like the idea / consider this acceptable).

I look forward to ¹³(receiving / hearing) your comments ¹⁴(as soon as possible / quickly). Yours sincerely

Jonathan Webb

Jonathan Webb

Marketing Director

2.2 Reorder the following, so that they show the usual structure of a letter of complaint:

• Explain what went wrong or why you were dissatisfied.

· End with an appropriate comment.

· Mention the inconvenience caused.

· Begin by regretting the need to complain.

· Suggest how the matter can be put right or what your solution to the problem is.

Now look at Jonathan Webb's letter and check how he organises his ideas.

2.3 Study the expressions in the Useful language box, then choose one of the situations below and write a letter of complaint: