When something goes wrong, what can we do to get a satisfactory outcome? Think about the last time you complained. Perhaps you brought a faulty item, or you were angry about the way you had been treated by an organisation or an individual person. What did you do about it? Was the outcome successful? With new forms of communication becoming more popular over recent years, has the traditional way of complaining by letter been overtaken by complaining by phone or email?
Read about the advantages and disadvantages of the different ways of complaining with some useful tips on how to complain effectively.
Before you read this article try an activity which tests your knowledge of the vocabulary within the text. Click here for the activity. More activities follow the article.
The different ways of complaining are:
Let’s first take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each before concluding which is the most effective.
Picture this scenario: you have bought a faulty item from a shop and you take it back to complain. You go directly to the shop assistant and tell them your problem. They say they cannot help you, which makes you angrier, to the point perhaps where you start insulting the poor shop assistant. RESULT: This will do you no favours, like getting any compensation, or even a refund. If you go directly to the first person you see within the organisation you are complaining about, you may be wasting your time as they may be powerless to take any action or provide you with a solution. So the important lesson to be learnt is to make sure firstly that you are speaking to the relevant person, the one who has the authority to make decisions.
Perhaps you don’t have time to actually go and see the relevant authority in person so you decide to make a phone call. The problem with complaining by phone is that you may be passed around from department to department, making you more and more angry until you finally give up. Either that or the phone is hung up on you, which leaves you fuming even more. Furthermore, any contact can be denied.
The same applies to emails too, which can additionally be deleted, or even manipulated.
This leaves us with the traditional letter. When we first make a complaint the usual response is a request to write a letter: “Can you put that down in writing please?”
The advantages of writing a letter of complaint are that
So here are some useful points to consider when writing your letter:
This will be more likely to ensure that you will achieve a satisfactory outcome from your complaint. Good luck!
Bearing in mind the tips above, click here to look at this letter of complaint and put the paragraphs in the correct order.
Playing the Writing Game - click here to reconstruct the letter but this time you can make it as easy or difficult as you wish.
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