You ordered a new chequebook from your bank two weeks ago but have received nothing. Write a letter to the manager complaining about the bad service. In your letter: - say when and how you ordered the chequebook - ask how much longer you will have to wait - ask what action the manager will take
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I ordered a new chequebook for a savings account that I maintain with your bank. It has been more than two weeks and I have still not received itnot received it yet. I am writing to complain about this poorbad service and to ask you to rectify the situationand hoping you would rectify that. I have been maintaining the account atin your branch for more than a decade and my account number is 7012845181. Generally, the service offered by the bank is praiseworthy, but I cannot say so this time. I placed a request for a chequebookchequebook requisition on 14th January and I am still waiting to receive it. I have some payments duepayments to make including a pension contributionincluding a payment to my pension fund and I cannot make themI cannot do so without the chequebook. It usually takes four to five working daysIt usually takes 4-5 working days to receive a new chequebook so please explain whyand I am not sure why it is taking so long this time. More concerninglysurprisingly, when I called the bank two days agothe day before yesterday, I received no useful responsegot no reliable response. I, therefore, request you to investigate this delaylook into this issue and give me an expected delivery datea probable date by which the chequebook willwould be delivered to my address. Furthermore, I would like to get appraised about the reasonable action that would be initiated from your end so as to reduce the possibility of reoccurrence of such a bad incident in the future. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon. Yours faithfully, Mehra Niraj
Why this response received Band 6.5
The complaint is purposeful, appropriately formal and well supported with the order date, payment urgency, prior telephone contact and requested remedies. Its main limitation is that it never states clearly how the chequebook was ordered, while dense wording and the absence of body paragraphs make the request less immediately accessible. Prioritise adding the ordering method and organising the problem, waiting-time request and corrective-action request into separate concise paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose and formal tone are clear, and the waiting-time and action requests are developed, but the method used to order the chequebook is not specified.
State explicitly whether the requisition was made online, by telephone or at the branch, then retain the clear requests for a delivery date and preventive action.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information follows a sensible sequence and cohesive markers guide the reader, but presenting the whole body as one paragraph obscures its distinct purposes.
Divide the letter into paragraphs covering the order history, the consequences of the delay, and the two actions requested from the manager.
Lexical Resource
The letter uses a good range of suitably formal vocabulary, though several bureaucratic or inaccurate choices make the final request less precise.
Use direct wording such as 'informed about the action you will take' instead of 'appraised about the reasonable action', and prefer 'recurrence' to 'reoccurrence'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences are handled with generally good control, but occasional faulty parallelism and overextended passive constructions reduce fluency.
Write 'I am writing to complain and to ask you to rectify this' and simplify the final action request into a direct active sentence.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You ordered a new chequebook from your bank two weeks ago but have received nothing. Write a letter to the manager complaining about the bad service. In your letter:
- say when and how you ordered the chequebook
- ask how much longer you will have to wait
- ask what action the manager will take
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.