You recently bought a piece of equipment for your kitchen but it did not work. You phoned the shop but no action was taken. Write a letter to the shop manager. In your letter: - describe the problem with the equipment? - explain what happened - when you phoned the shop? - say what you would like the manager to do?
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is AnkithaI am Ankitha, and I am writingwriting this letter to complain aboutexpress my discontent regarding the microwave oven which Iwas bought earlier this week from your shopin your merchandise. Unfortunately, it did not workdid not commence its operation even though it has a five-year warrantydespite its warranty of five years when I installed it in my home.
Hence, I askedinformed one of the electricians in my apartment buildingin our apartment to look into the issue. After a thorough examination, he informed me that there was no power supplythere is a lack of power supply to the oven, and it is unable to receive powerdraw electric current into the machine. He also advised that an extra cord is required for the connection.
In order to inform you about these issues, I have been trying to reach out to you for the past 24 hours and calling your store intermittently. However, I have received no responsethere is no response from your end, and your line has been engaged every timeyour line is engaged all the time.
Thus I request that you arrangerequest you to arrange a free service visitfree consultation to visit my place and look into the problem. Furthermore, as suggested by the electrician, another power cord is required and inform your attendee to procure it before visiting my place. Please provide me with an alternative number to reach out to you.
I hope for a prompt response.
Yours faithfully,
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter is clearly organised, appropriately formal, and successfully explains the faulty microwave, the unsuccessful contact attempts, and the requested remedy. Its main weakness is frequent unnatural wording and some grammatical imprecision, which make otherwise clear details sound strained. The highest priority is to replace forced expressions with direct, idiomatic language while stating the purchase, fault, phone call, and desired action more precisely.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter maintains an appropriate formal tone and addresses the equipment problem, the attempted contact, and the requested action with relevant supporting detail.
State the exact purchase date and the first phone call more directly, and clarify whether a repair, replacement, or refund is preferred.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses logically through the fault, investigation, contact attempts, and requested solution, with clear paragraphing and generally effective linking.
Use fewer formulaic linkers and make the transition from the electrician’s findings to the requested remedy more direct.
Lexical Resource
The response shows sufficient range for a complaint, but frequent awkward collocations such as “in your merchandise” and “commence its operation” reduce precision and naturalness.
Prefer common, exact phrases such as “bought from your store,” “would not switch on,” and “send a technician.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The writer uses varied sentence forms and generally communicates clearly, though article, preposition, and clause-control errors recur in several sentences.
Review sentence structure around requests and instructions, especially the incomplete construction beginning “another power cord is required and inform.”
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently bought a piece of equipment for your kitchen but it did not work. You phoned the shop but no action was taken. Write a letter to the shop manager. In your letter:
- describe the problem with the equipment?
- explain what happened
- when you phoned the shop?
- say what you would like the manager to do?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.