Unit 8 Dealing with problems

Objectives Focus Warming up 8.1 What seems to be the problem? 8.2 We all make mistakes –sometimes! 8.3 Complaining and apologizing 8.4 Friday afternoon: Delivery problems 8.5 Only the best is good enough 8.6 Monday morning：After-sales problems Sum-up Assignment

Objectives When finishing learning this unit, you should be able to: Deal with some kinds of problems encountered in business. Complain and apologize by letter, fax or e-mail.

Focus Resolving the problems that occur in International trade and daily work life. Writing to complain and apologize.

Warming up In business, customers are sometimes dissatisfied with a product or service after it has been delivered and paid for--maybe because they have unreasonable expectations, maybe because the service really is bad. In our daily life, we always get involved in some annoying situation. Maybe you bought something and found it broken when back at home. What did you do then? Look at the pictures, what seems to be the problem? What are they going to say?

8.1 What seems to be the problems? A Discussion B Listening

A Discussion Look at the pictures : What do you think has happened? What are the people going to say? What would you do in each situation

B Listening You’ll hear eight short phone calls. Match the number of each call to one of these sentences.

Answers to B 1 a 2 c 3 f 4 e 5 g 6 i 7 1 8 k

8.2 We all make mistakes! A Case study (reading & discussion) B Case study (listening, reading &discussion C Role play D Writing

A Case study (reading & discussion) Study the case: What’s your role? Read the two notes and discuss: Q1: What do you think may have happened? Q2: What should you do?

B Case study Listen to a telephone message Read the two more documents at File 75 Every group make a discussion and decide what to do. (As the order has been placed with Uniplex by Zenith, there is now a binding contract between the companies which can only be cancelled by mutual agreement. )

C role-play Role-play the conversations. (on the phone or face-to-face) There are two role-plays: one conversation between the Zenith buyer and Piero Conti and another between the Zenith buyer and Lucia Donato. Make notes before the call, because the situations are delicate: both Conti and Donato may be disgruntled or indignant. Make sure both partners have a turn at being the Zenith person, so that no one has to play the role of both Mr. Conti and Ms Donato.

D Writing Draft their faxes or e-mails.

Answers to D To: Piero Conti, Uniplex srl, Pisa From: Zenith International Dear Mr. Conti, Re: Our order for MCL88 cable We regret that we shall have to cancel this order. Unfortunately, a temporary member of our staff placed the order by mistake while I was on holiday. However, we are still very interested in your products. We do hope that we may be able to do business with you in future. Perhaps you could contact us to discuss this soon? We are very sorry about the inconvenience this may have caused. Regards,

To: Lucia Donato, Uniflex SpA, La Spezia From: Zenith International Dear Ms Donato， We are very sorry about the confusion about our order this month. There was a slip-up in our buying department during the holidays, which resulted in a number of errors. Page 2 of this fax is a copy of the order that should have been sent to you. As you will see, this is exactly the same as last month’s order. I hope that you will be able to fill the order, in spite of our delay. I apologize again for the inconvenience caused. Thank you for drawing our attention to the situation and for your patience. Looking forward to seeing you next time you are in ____ Best wishes,

8.3 Complaining and apologizing A. Listening B. Reading & Writing C. Role play D. Discussion E. Role play (speaking)

A. Listening You’ll hear four conversations. Note down what the problem is in each case and what action is to be taken.

Answers to A PROBLEM 1. Wrong size paper – wrongly labeled box 2. forgot to send in Eastern region order 3. wrong quality delivered (not A1 quality) 4. color negatives not sent ACTION to be taken Refund: £11.95 Telex the order t Compass International Charge 20% les for the order AND ship load of A1 tomorrow morning Mr. Patel will collect them tomorrow personally

B Reading & writing Look at the extracts from four letters. Complete each sentence. What would you write in your reply to each as if it was your fault in each case?

Answers to B 1. …confirm that you have received the order and that you have the goods in stock？ REPLY Please accept our apologies for not having confirmed your order. The reason is that we have been understaffed this month as there has been a flu epidemic here. We can confirm that the order has been received and will be shipped to you tomorrow, in accordance with your instructions.

2. …please look into this matter？We can only assume that this shipping note was sent in error and that the goods have not been dispatched. REPLY We are very sorry for this mistake. Our dispatch manager discovered at the last moment that your order was incomplete and he delayed the shipment until the missing parts had been found. Unfortunately, the shipping advice had already been posted and we failed to inform you of the delay. I am pleased to inform you that the missing parts have now been packed and left our works yesterday．

3…. refund the difference, which I calculate to be $72 3….refund the difference, which I calculate to be $72.50 for five nights. REPLY We wish to apologize for our mistake in overcharging you for your room. I have looked into the matter and discover that you were charged at the double room rate by mistake. I have refunded the sum of $72.50 to your MasterCard account and enclose the refund slip. In view of our error and in the hope that you will stay with us again, may I offer you a special discount of 15% for your next stay at our hotel?

4. …arrange for the missing items to be shipped to us at once？ REPLY Please accept our apologies for this mistake．Since your order was placed, we have begun using now new boxes which contain 100 items. Your order was short by 3,520 items. A further 36 boxes are on their way to you now.

C Role play Instead of being dealt with by letter, the same situations are dealt with on the phone. Works in pairs, students role-play the conversations.

D Discussion What are more excuses that may be used to cover up for a mistake? a typing error a keyboard error a misunderstanding a bad telephone line pressure of work temporary staff bad weather delaying delivery your suppliers letting you down

E Role play Assignment: Student A should look at File 20 student B at File 51. Use the expressions in the speech balloon.

8.4 Friday afternoon: Delivery problems A Case study B Case study (reading , writing, role play)

A Case study Listen to the recording of a telephone message from Mr. Robinson, the production manager. Q1: What is the problem? Q2: How to solve it? (The company has received the wrong components and if they aren't replaced fast, the production line will have to stop.) Read the fax: Q: When was delivery promised for? (In the fax delivery was promised for 30 May.) The letter can be used as a MODEL for the ‘apologetic letter’. In the letter the reason given was a late delivery by Ocean View’s suppliers. Discuss in pairs and make their decisions. If you've decided what to do, role-play the phone calls, with one student acting for Pacific International, one for Ocean View. Or direct the students towards one of the options: letter, fax, or e-mail.

Suggested solution for A Phone Ocean View and ask for all or part of the order to be air-freighted or shipped at once. Or maybe find another supplier locally who can deliver more quickly.

B Case study Read this memo. Q: What is the problem? What to do? (The goods are damaged, but it's not clear who is responsible for this - so the students must decide whether or not to accept responsibility and agree to Arctic Refrigeration’s demand for credit.) Write an apologetic letter, students may have to refer back to Mr. Duvall's letter in step A3, which they can use as a model. Role-play the phone calls, with one student acting for Atlantic International, one for Arctic Refrigeration, and the others for Observers.

8.6 Monday morning: After-sales problems A Case study (reading & writing) B Case study (reading & writing)

A Case study 1. Read the message and the letter: What is the problem ? Discuss how to solve it ? (You have already written to complain about Fox Industries’ after-sales service but received no reply. Now a new machine has gone wrong, possibly as a result of incompetent servicing by Fox's engineer.）

2. Decide what action you should take in this situation 3. Draft a suitable letter, fax or e-mail –or make notes for a phone call. 4. Compare your draft or notes with another pair or group 5. Look at File 76, where you will see an unexpectedly apologetic, placatory fax from Mr. Reynard, which you must read, discuss and respond to. 6. One or two groups report their solutions to the whole class.

B Reading Read the two faxes, decide what you are going to do in each case. Q: So what exactly has gone wrong in these situations? (In the first case, the customer has been supplied with goods that don't work properly. In the second case, the customer has been sent a handbook which has missing pages.)

Sum-up: In this unit, we learnt: How to deal with all kinds of problems How to complain and apologize in trade.

Assignment: Write a letter to complain delivery problems.