You have recently ordered an item through the Internet, but you are not happy with the product. Write to the company. In your letter: - describe what you purchased - explain why you are not happy with the product - tell them what you would like them to do about it
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writingwriting this letter to let you know that I am very dissatisfiednot exactly very happy with the product fromof your company which I purchased from your onlineeCommerce store about a week ago. I hope you will either replace it or refund the money. The product I am talking aboutproduct, I am talking about, is a travel bag. I paid $270 for this product, but unfortunately,product but unfortunately, this bag does not look like the one I saw on your website in terms of its colour and designas far as its colour and design is concerned. In fact, the bag I ordered onlinebag, I ordered online, was light yellow while the bag I have received is dark yellow. Besides, the fabric used as the bag's inner liningfabric, which has been used inside the bag as an inner layer, appearslooks to be of very poor quality. Finally, the design differs from the advertised onedesign is not exactly the same and I wonder how this could have happenedhow could this happen! Anyway, I do not like to sound like a complaining person, trying to find faults in the bag I have purchased. So, I would highly appreciate it if you couldplease replace this bag with one of better qualitybag with a bag of better quality as well as with the colour and design that I had initially orderedordered for. But, if you do not have what I have been looking for, please make a full refund to me as soon as you can. Thank you in advance. Yours faithfully, Kelly Megan
Why this response received Band 7.0
The complaint achieves its purpose very effectively by identifying the bag, explaining several specific defects, and requesting either an accurate replacement or a refund in an appropriately formal tone. The principal limitation is the dense single-paragraph presentation, compounded by recurring punctuation and clause-structure errors. Divide the message into clear functional paragraphs and revise indirect questions and polite request structures.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully developed with precise purchase details, clear reasons for dissatisfaction, and a practical requested remedy.
Make the complaint still more efficient by removing the unnecessary aside about not wanting to sound like a complaining person.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information progresses logically from purchase to defects and remedy, but the complete letter is compressed into one paragraph.
Separate the opening, product problems, and requested resolution into distinct paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and generally precise for a formal complaint, despite occasional awkward phrases such as "product of your company" and "make a full refund."
Refine collocations by using natural expressions such as "one of your products" and "issue a full refund."
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a good range of complex forms, but intrusive commas and errors in indirect questions and polite request structures recur.
Revise forms such as "I wonder how this could happen" and "I would appreciate it if you replaced the bag."
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have recently ordered an item through the Internet, but you are not happy with the product. Write to the company. In your letter:
- describe what you purchased
- explain why you are not happy with the product
- tell them what you would like them to do about it
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.