In this General Training IELTS Writing Task 1 post, I’m sharing an official complain letter on a product that does not work properly. Hopefully, this will give you some idea of writing any formal complaint letter describing the given situation. I’ve included a sample answer with vocabulary practice and bonus tips.

The things you need to do first:

First, you must read the instructions carefully and understand how to start the letter, what to write in the body paragraphs and so forth. You have to follow the rules of writing a formal letter, so the language has to be formal as well.

It often happens that we buy a product from a well-known store and returning home we find out that the product doesn’t work the way it should. The time you’re trying to state a problem to a store, the very first thing to do is to talk about your situation with the manager or a representative of the store.

A complaint letter is quite tricky to write. It places your complaint on evidence with the company, helps safeguard any official rights you can have under the circumstances, and allows the authority to recognize you’re serious about pursuing the complaint or claim.

Let’s have a look at an example letter title:

Below you will find a sample answer for this question.

Sample answer:

Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is Najibur Rasul and I’m one of the most regular shoppers of your store. I am writing this letter to officially report the faulty electric hand mixer that I purchased from your store a week ago.

I visited your store on Wednesday morning, 21st October, like every other week to obtain an electric hand mixer. After carefully browsing two or three different types I bought an RND Mini Automatic Hand mixer with the purchase code CET2314678. I was assured by your shop assistant that this was the latest and the trendiest product in the market and the service of the product was extremely satisfactory. However, returning home and unpacking the machine I was quite shocked to find out that the power cable did not work properly. Moreover, the product did not look as smart as it was described in the cover packet. Furthermore, the beaters in the mixer do not rotate properly. I called the customer service of your store straight away on Wednesday afternoon only to get another reassurance that my product would be fixed or replaced within a couple of days. I am extremely disappointed to inform you that I did not receive any return call from your store since.

This is truly an upsetting matter that such a renowned store has not only provided me with a faulty product but also with very poor service. I hope this issue will be resolved as soon as possible. I expect to receive a replacement of the product as it is under guarantee. Please let me know of any procedure regarding this that involves me.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Najibur Rasul.

Important vocabulary with meanings:

Shopper: customer, consumer,

Officially: formally, on the record,

Report: inform, describe,

Faulty: defective, damaged,

Purchase: buy, pay for,

Obtain: get, buy, acquire,

Browse: look around,

Assure: promise, give security,

Trendiest: most popular, most admired,

Extremely:, very,

Satisfactory: suitable, acceptable,

Unpack: take out, empty,

Shocked:  surprised, stunned,

Power cable: electric cable,

Rotate: spin, revolve,

Straight away: immediately, right away,

Reassurance: guarantee, assurance, promise,

Fixed: preset, set, permanent,

Replace: restore, put back, substitute,

Disappointed: dissatisfied, displeased,

Upsetting: dissatisfying, displeasing,

Renowned: famous, well-known,

Replacement: substitution, switch,

Guarantee: assurance, promise,

Procedure: process, system,

Bonus tips:

In General Training IELTS, every letter has a fixed goal which a candidate needs to understand and must write correctly to reach the goal. For example:

• Complain letters or letters on making arrangements often follow the ‘FORMAL’ setting.
• Letters on apology or request letters may follow either FORMAL or INFORMAL language.
• Most invitation letters follow SEMI-FORMAL or INFORMAL style.

Learn about letter goals and try to practice writing different letters as much as you can before the final exam.

Click here for 3 different sample GT letters with model answers

If you think the post is helpful, please follow and like us: