1. Chapter Eleven Complaints and Adjustments

2. Section 1 Introduction letter of complaint (Br E) or claim letter (Am E) Written claims are usually taken most seriously, and they establish a record of what happened. adjustment Learn to use tactics and strategies in writing well- founded and ill-founded claims.

3. Section 2 Specimen Documents Specimen 1: Complaint about the inferior quality (a mild complaint) Thank you for your prompt delivery of our trial order No. 2098 of July 15. On examining the shoes, we found that the finish is poor because the coloring varies. We have sent you a parcel with some shoes to show you how inferior the finish is. However, if you are willing to grant us a discount of 25%, we might be able to find an outlet for the shoes. Please let us know whether you find this acceptable.

4. Specimen 2: Complaining about delayed delivery (a strong complaint or ultimatum) We refer to …., in which you promised to ship the goods we ordered in the middle of June to reach Shanghai by the end of June. We would like to call your attention to the fact that no news has come from you about the shipment, although the time of shipment is now several weeks overdue. As we informed you previously, July is the season for this commodity in our market, and the time of delivery is a matter of great importance to us. The delay of your shipment has resulted in a loss to us of about US $20 000. In such circumstances, we have to lodge a claim of US $20 000 with you. We trust that you will give our claim your most favorable consideration and let us have your settlement at an early date.

5. Specimen 3: Reply to a justified complaint I was extremely sorry to hear of the broken boxes and shortage of goods in the above order. We have checked the order, and the poor packing you describe was due to problems we have had with a new type of packing material. This new material is not strong enough for packages like these. Your future orders will be packed in sturdier material in order to prevent this from happening again. We understand you need the missing items urgently and have already arranged the shipment of the missing pencils, pens and rulers. You will receive them well before schools start. If you need any further help, please call me personally on … or email me at ….

6. Specimen 4: Reply to an unwarranted complaint Thank you for your letter … reporting the patchiness of the color on the shoes. This kind of coloring is still in fashion. Judging by modern Chinese design, we took it for granted that Chinese ladies would be attracted by this finish. The same shoes are also made with even coloring, but, unfortunately, the differences could not be seen so clearly in the pictures in our catalog. We appreciate your offer to find a market for the shoes at a discount of 25%. Considering the good quality and fashionable style of the shoes, we regret that we cannot grant you such a big allowance. However, as this was our first transaction with you, we shall be pleased to allow you a reduction of 10%. Should you prefer to return the shoes, please inform us of your decision and we will ask our shipping agents to collect and return them to us. Despite this regrettable incident we hope that you will continue to do business with us and we shall do our best to give special attention to the treatment of your orders.

7. Specimen 5: Delayed payment With reference to our records, our invoice No. 35823, sent to you in March, has not yet been cleared. As specified on all our invoices, our terms of business are 30 days net. Your invoice has now been outstanding for 90 days. In the case of unsettled debts of this duration it is our company policy to take legal action. We would naturally prefer not to have to go so far. Would you please send us a check for the outstanding amount. In case you have lost or mislaid the original, I am enclosing a copy of our invoice. We look forward to receiving your payment.

8. Specimen 6: Claim for shortweight Chemical fertilizers under the above contract arrived safely at Qingdao on schedule but were found short delivered. On checking the ship’s draft 船舶吃水 by the local Commodity Inspection Corporation and after due deductions made, a short weight of 60 tons was determined and certified as against the invoice weight of... tons after deducting 1% allowance and moisture. We, therefore, have to lodge a claim on your company for the short-weight as follows: (omitted) We enclose Inspection Certificate No. 67/098 and a copy of the Surveyor’s Report on weight by draft. Please examine them and make due compensation for our loss.

9. Specimen 7: Positive reply to the above claim for shortweight We are sorry to learn from your fax of today that the chemical fertilizers under Contract No. 904567 were short delivered by 60 tons. This must have caused you some difficulty in meeting orders of your clients. We have arranged for a checkup at the warehouse at the loading port and found some 30 bags left behind broken. This was due entirely to negligence on the part of the forwarding agent. For this, we apologize. We are ready to compensate your loss and will send you the claimed amount, US$3203.25, by T/T( 电汇）. I hope this overlook on our part will not affect our future cooperation.

10. Section 3 Useful Expressions On checking the goods received, we find that several items on your invoice have not been included. We are enclosing a list of the missing articles for your reference. The goods we have received do not tally with the sample. The packing inside the case was too loose, with the result that there has been some shifting of the contents and several cups and plates have broken. The attached list gives the details. We must lodge a claim for USD 5 000. Could you please let us have your credit note for this amount? We have taken the matter up with our quality control.

11. We are prepared to allow 10% off the invoice price. We appreciate your kindness in keeping the goods and hope that this settlement will satisfy you. On investigating the matter, we find that a mistake was, indeed, made in the packing through a mix-up with numbers, and we have arranged for the right goods to be dispatched to you immediately. I really must apologize for our serious oversight in failing to credit this payment to your account. I am afraid we cannot refund the total purchase amount, as only fifty laser pointers did not work. Please arrange to return them to us, carriage forward, and we will then provide you with replacements. We would like to thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

12. Your detailed description of the damage was very helpful to us. We have arranged for the collection of the wrongly- delivered goods by our shipping agent. The new quality control procedures we have introduced will ensure that this problem does not happen again. Due to the delays and the extra expense incurred with shipping the containers by air freight, we would like to request that reduce the freight charges. I would appreciate your combined help in solving these problems.