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Complaint Letter

What is a Complaint Letter?

You feel like complaining when you do not receive the things as per your desire. In businesses, people prefer to write a complaint letter when they feel disconnected towards a particular product or a company. Some of the people are afraid to write a complaint letter because they don’t feel good to be argumentative. Understand, that in such a letter you don’t have to express your anger or show any kind of negativity. The complaint letter is a request for an adjustment and so write it accordingly. In this letter, you can describe mistakes, errors or any kind of damage that you have faced in the past.

Today, businesses are expanding overseas to a greater extent. Hence, unintentional mistakes are bound to happen and so you must know the right way to deal with it. As a buyer, if you are suffering from the bad quality of services or any kind of financial loss, then you have the right to complaint. The complaint letter is written in such a scenario to the serve the purpose of complaint. It is important for you to make use of the polite tone while writing a complaint letter.

Things to Include in Your Complaint Letter!

When it comes to the complaint letter, here are the few things that you need to include:

  • First, it is important for you to describe your problem appropriately.
  • Once you are done with describing your problem, your next step will be to state the outcome that you are expecting out of the complaint letter.
  • It is important for you to include dates related to purchases of goods or services.
  • You should also include the date when the problem occurred.
  • Describe, if any kind of action you have taken from your side to fix the problem.
  • Describe the actions that you may take if the problem is not resolved.
  • State the time by which you want the concerned authorities to revert back to you.
  • If required, you can attach the supporting documents.

Few Causes of Drafting a Complaint Letter

Here are the few causes of drafting a complaint letter:

Goods not delivered properly

There can be many problems related to the delivered goods like they are defective, underweight, old-fashioned, unfinished etc. Buyer can claim to the seller, only when the delivered goods are not up to the mark or the wrong package has been delivered to you.

Wrong pricing details

Sometimes seller can make a mistake in preparing an invoice for the shipped goods. You can complain about the same by writing a complaint letter.

Improper packaging

Faulty product or improper packaging of the product can give you the reason to write a complaint letter.

Violation of terms and conditions

If the seller has violated any kind of terms and conditions, then you can get the valid reason to write such a letter.

Problem with insurance coverage

When it comes to insurance coverage, if it is not made as per your instructions then you can consider writing such a letter.

Whatever may be the reason for writing such a letter, but it is important for you to make use of decent and polite tone.

Different Reasons When Buyer Makes Complaint Against Seller

  • Sending defective goods to you
  • Delivering wrong products
  • Delaying your consignment
  • Delivering damaged products
  • Sending wrong parcel to you
  • Mistake with the delivered quantity of goods
  • Unsatisfying services
  • Wrong goods delivered at wrong place
  • Improper behaviour of the staff members or salesperson
  • Defective packaging that leads to damage of goods
  • Billing mistake
  • Dispatching wrong product in terms of colour, pattern, brand etc.

Features of Good Complaint Letter

What is the good complaint letter? The good complaint letter is the one that does not show any kind of confrontation or aggression. However bad you may feel, but it is important to maintain good tone while writing such a letter. Here are the features of good complaint letter:

  • It is important for your complaint letter to be concise. Writing the letter in a concise manner can make it easy for the reader to understand your motive behind writing a letter.
  • The confidently and convincingly written letter can have more credibility. Such professionally presented letter are taken more seriously.
  • Write a realistic letter by adding details related to products or services. You can also add details related to the dates, requirements etc. Adding realistic information in your letter can make it easy for the recipient to resolve your complaint.
  • Your letter should be constructive so that it can encourage the reader to take the required action. For this, it is important for you to add positive statements in your letter.
  • You need to write such a letter in a friendly manner and this is possible by using cooperative and complimentary tone.

Two Types of the Complaints Letter

There are many types of complaint letters written in the business world but mainly these are divided in to two categories. These two categories are:

  • Routine complaint letter
  • Persuasive complaint letter

If there is any kind of routine mistake done by the seller, then you can write the complaint letter which falls in the routine category. The routine mistakes are those which can be quickly rectified in short time span. For instance, if the quoted amount for a particular product is $30 but the amount charged by the supplier is $35, then such mistakes can be easily rectified.

The complaints which fall in the persuasive category are difficult to justify. The related seller may or may not pay attention to this kind of complaints. For instance, you ordered a particular product for $30 but after placing an order you saw that the price has been reduced to $25. When you bring this to the notice of seller by writing a complaint letter, then the seller may or may not pay attention to it.

Complaint Letter Template

  • Your name
  • Your address
  • Email address and phone number
  • Proper salutation like, “Dear Manager”
  • Add proper subject line and date
  • In the first paragraph, state your problem and add location as well as date
  • In the next paragraph, explain key details related to the problems
  • Inform about the enclosed documents
  • State details related to the steps needed to be taken to fix the problems
  • Close the letter with proper salutation

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