Commercial_Correspondence

Mst [request

54-59 Riverside, Cardiff CFI 11W

Telephone: +4.4 (0)29 20 49721

Fax: +44 (0)29 zo 49937

Email: rcliff@homemakers.com

Registered No. c135162

20 November 20—

R. Hughes & Son Ltd

21 Mead Road

Swansea

West Glamorgan 3ST 1DR

Dear Robert

I am writing concerning our invoice No. H931 for £919.63, a copy of which is enclosed. It appears that this invoice has not yet been settled.

I see from our records that since we began trading you have cleared your accounts regularly on the due dates. That is why I wondered if any problems have arisen which I might be able to help you with? Please let me know if I can be of assistance.

Yours sincerely

Richardclific

Richard Cliff

Director

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Example letter

Rept, to firest papest

You will see from Mr Hughes' reply to Mr Cliff's letter that the invoice had been paid, not by cheque, which was Mr Hughes' usual method of payment, but by credit transfer. If Mr Cliff had looked at his bank statement, he would have seen that the money had been credited. However, as Mr Hughes changed his method of payment, he should have informed his supplier as banks do not always advise credit transfers.This is a good example of whyyou should not assume that a customer has failed to pay an account. Remember that this type of correspondence is best handled by letter, not email or fax.

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SOID Ltd

21 Mead Road, Swansea

West Glamorgan 35r 1DR

Telephone: +44 (0)1792 5 8441

Fax: Swansea +44 (0)1792 59472

Email: r.hughes@huson.co.uk

24th November 20—

Mr R. Cliff

Homemakers Ltd

54-59 Riverside

Cardiff CFI 13W

Dear Richard

I was surprised to receive your letter of 20 November in which you said you had not received payment for invoice No. H931.

I instructed my bank, The Welsh Co-operative Bank, Swansea, to credit your account in Bamley's Bank, Cardiff, with the £919.63 on 2nd November.

As my bank statement showed the money had been debited to my account, I assumed that it had been credited to your account as well. It is possible that your bank has not advised you yet. Could you please check this with Bamley's, and if there are any problems let me know, so that I can make enquiries here?

Yours sincerely

Robert HaykeS

Robert Hughes

VAT NO.215 226130

INGENIE S

1N .PUSTRALES SA

Barrio de lbaeta s/n E-20009 San Sebastian

Sig. D. Giordianino

Omega S.p.A.

Via Agnello 2153

20121 Milano

Italy

Dear Sig. Giordianino

With reference to my letter of 10 August, I enclose copy invoices which made up your June statement, the balance of which still remains outstanding.

Having dealt with you for some time, we are concerned that we have neither received your remittance nor any explanation as to why the balance of €6,000.00 has not been cleared. Please would you either reply with an explanation or send us a cheque to clear the account within the next seven days?

Yours sincerely

R.Costello

R.Costello (Sr) Credit Controller End.

see that, even though this is a second letter,

Sr Costello still avoids an unfriendly tone.

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a.Here is Sig. Giordianino's reply to Sr Costello's letter.

ega

Omega S.p.A.

Viale Mortidio 61269 I-10125 Torino

Telefono (+39)-11-5981461

Telefax (+39)-11-628351

Email giord ia nd@omega.co.it

www.omega.it

Vs. rif. 613/02

Ns. rif. SG/DA

Date 1 September 20—

Example letter

Sr R. Costello

Credit Controller

Ingenieros Industriales SA

Barrio de Ibaeta s/n

E-20009 San Sebastian

Dear Sr Costello

First let me apologize for not having cleared our June statement or replying to your letter of 10 August. However, I am surprised that you did not receive our circular letter informing all our suppliers that we were moving from Milan to Turin. I have checked our post book, and find that a letter was sent to you on June 30.

As you will see from the copy enclosed, we warned suppliers that there might be some delay in clearing accounts and replying to correspondence as the move would involve employing new staff who needed time to get used to our accounts and filing systems.

You will be pleased to hear that we have now settled into our new offices and will have a fully trained staff by the end of next month. Meanwhile, I am enclosing a cheque for €20,000 on account, and will send a full settlement of your June statement within the next few days.

Could you please note our new address for future reference?

Yours sincerely

giovaliamiAo

D. Giordianino (Sig.)

Accountant

Enc. Bank Draft No. 427322 for €20,000

Delta Computers Ltd

Bradfield Estate

Bradfield Road

Wellingborough

Northamptonshire

008 OR

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We wrote to you on two occasions, 21 October and 14 November, concerning the above account, which now has an outstanding balance of £3,541.46 and is made up of the copy invoices enclosed.

We have waited three months for either a reply to explain why the balance has not been cleared, or a remittance, but have received neither.

We are reluctant to take legal action to recover the amount, but you leave us no alternative. Unless we receive your remittance within the next ten days, we will instruct our solicitors to start proceedings.

Yours sincerely

J. Millai

J. Millar (Mrs)

Chief Accountant

Enc. invoice copies

Reg. England 1831713

VAT 2419 6211 4

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97

100 UNJUSTIFIED COMPLAINTS

100 MAKING GENERAL COMPLAINTS

100 Opening

100The language of complaints 101 Explaining the problem

101Suggesting a solution

101 REPLYING TO LETTERS OF COMPLAINT

1m Opening

101Asking for time to investigate the complaint

102Explaining the mistake

102 Solving the problem

102 Rejecting a complaint

102 Closing

EXAMPLES 103 Complaint about wrong delivery

104Reply to complaint about wrong delivery

105Complaint about damage.

106Reply to complaint about damage

107piaint about bad workmanship

108Reply to complaint about bad workmanship

109Complaint about non-delivery

110Reply to complaint about wrong delivery

111ACCOUNTING ERRORS AND ADJUSTMENTS

113Credit note

114Complaint about accounting errors

115Reply to complaint about accounting errors

116Points to remember

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Complaints and adjustments

UNJUSTIFIED COMPLAINTS

Before you complain, make absolutely sure your facts are right.

If you have to respond to an unjustified complaint, be polite and remember that anyone can make a mistake. Below are two examples of unjustified complaints, and the replies to them. Notice how restrained the replies are.

—Dear Sir

I strongly object to the extra charge of £9.00 which you have added to my statement.

When I sent my cheque for £256.00 last week,

I thought it cleared this balance. Now Ifind

—Dear Mr Axeby

We received your letter today complaining of an extra charge of £9.00 on your May statement. I think if you check the statement you will find that the amount due was £265.00 not £256.00 which accounts forthe £9.00 difference. I have enclosed a copy of the statement and ...

—Dear Sir

I could not believe it when I read that your prices have now been increased by £30.00. To have to pay £55.00 for an article that was £25.00 only a few months ago is outrageous! The government is fighting inflation ...

— Dear Mr Richardson

Thank you for your letter. I checked the item you referred to, the Scriva Pen, catalogue No. G14 on our price-list. The price of the pen has been increased from £25.00 to £30.00, not by £30.00, and I think you will agree that fora fountain pen this is not an unreasonable increase considering that the cost of our materials has doubled in the past few months.

MAKING GENERAL COMPLAINTS

When sending a complaint, you will need to decide whether it is appropriate to use fax or email, where privacy cannot be guaranteed, or to write a letter. Some complaints, e.g. a mistake in a small payment or in the number

of goods despatched, can be faxed or emailed, but a letter should be used for larger or more serious complaints.

Opening

Do not delay. Complain as soon as you realize a mistake has been made; delay weakens your case and can complicate the matter as details may be forgotten. There is no need to open by apologizing for the need to complain (We regret to inform you ...,I am sorry to have to write to you about...) as this also weakens your case. Simply begin:

—We would like to inform you ...

— I am writing to complain about...

—I am writing with reference to Order No. P32, which we received yesterday.

The ieenguage of rnplaieds

Emotional terms like disgusted, infuriated, or amazed have no place in business. You can express dissatisfaction by saying:

—This is the third time this mistake has occurred and we are farfrom satisfied with the service you offer.

—'Unless you can fulfil our orders efficiently in the future we will have to consider changing to another supplier.

— Please ensure that this sort of problem does not arise again.

Do not be rude or personal. In most cases correspondence between companies takes place between employees in various departments. Nothing is gained by being rude to the individual you are writing to. You may antagonize someone who has probably had nothing to do with the error and, rather than getting it corrected, he or she could become defensive and difficult to deal with. Therefore, do not use sentences like:

—You must correct your mistake as soon as possible.

—You made an error on the statement. —You don't understand the terms of discount.

We told you to deduct discount from net prices, not CIF prices.

Use the passive and impersonal structures mentioned earlier >see page 87.

— The mistake must be corrected as soon as possible.

—There appears to be an error on the statement.

—There seems to be some misunderstanding regarding terms of discount. Discount is deducted from net prices, not CIF prices.

Do not use words likefault (your fault, our fault) or blame (you are to blame) — these expressions are rude and childish. Do not write:

— It is not our fault. It is probably the fault of your despatch department.

Instead, write:

— The mistake could not have originated here, and must be connected with the despatch of the goods.

Never blame your own staff, and finally, while writing the complaint remember that your supplier will almost certainly want to help you and correct the mistake. Suppliers are not in business to irritate or confuse their customers but to offer them a service.

Explaining the prroblem

If you think you know how the mistake was made, you may politely point this out to your supplier. Sometimes, when a mistake occurs several times, you may be able to work out why it is happening more quickly than the company you are dealing with.

— Could you tell your despatch department to take special care when addressing consignments? My name and address are

C.J. Schwartz, Bergstr.101Köln. But there is a C. Schwartz, Bergstr. no Köln who also deals in

electrical fittings.

—Could you ask your accounts department to check my code carefully in future? My account number is 246-642, but they have been sending me statements coded 642-246.

— I think the reason that wrong sizes have been sent to me is because I am ordering in metric sizes, and you are sending me sizes measured in feet and inches. I would appreciate your looking into this.

Acknowledge that you have received the complaint, and thank your customer for informing you.

—Thank you for your letter of 6 August informing us that...

—We would like to thank you for informing us of our accounting error in your letter of 7 June.

—We are replying to your letter of io March in which you told us that...

Asking fo[r time to investigate the corn piaint

Sometimes you cannot deal with a complaint immediately, as the matter needs to be looked into. Do not leave your customer waiting but tell them what you are doing straight away. In this case, an email or fax message is appropriate as the customer then knows immediately that you have received the complaint and are doing something about it.

—While we cannot give you an explanation at present, we are looking into theproblem and will contact you again shortly.

—As we are sending out orders promptly, I think these delays may be occurring during transit. I shall get in touch with the haulage contractors.

— Would you please return samples of the items you are dissatisfied with, and I will send them to our factory in Dusseldorf for tests.

Complaints and adjustments

102

Explaining the nraistake

If the complaint is justified, explain how the mistake occurred but do not blame your staff. You employed them, so you are responsible for their actions.

—The mistake was due to a fault in one of our machines, which has now been corrected.

—There appears to have been some confusion in our addressing system, but this has been sorted out.

—It is unusual for this type of error to arise, but the problem has now been dealt with.

Solving the problem

Having acknowledged your responsibility and explained what went wrong, you should put matters right as soon as possible, and tell your customer that you are doing so.

—We have now checked our accounts and find that we have been sending you the wrong statement due to a confusion in names and addresses. The database has been adjusted and there should be no more difficulties. Please contact us again i f a similar situation arises, and thank you again for pointing out the error.

—The paintwork on the body of the cars became discoloured because of a chemical imbalance in the paint used in spraying the vehicles. We have already contacted our own suppliers and are waiting for their reply. Meanwhile we are taking these models out of production and calling in all those that have been supplied.

—The fabric you complained about has now been withdrawn. The fault was in the weave of the cloth, which was due to a programming error in the weaving machines. This has now been corrected and replacementfabric will be sent to you.

Rejecting a complaint

If you think the complaint is unjustified, you can be firm but polite in your answer. But even if you deny responsibility, you should always try to give an explanation of the problem.

—We have closely compared the articles you returned with our samples and can see no difference between them. Therefore, in this case we are not willing either to substitute the articles or to offer a credit.

— Ourfactory has now inspected the unit you returned last week, and they inform us that the circuits were overloaded. We can repair the machine, but it will be necessary to charge you as incorrect use of the unit is not covered by our guarantee.

Closing

It is useful when closing your letter to mention that the mistake, error, or fault is an exception, and it either rarely or never happens. You should also, of course, apologize for the inconvenience your customer experienced.

—In closing we would like to apologize for the inconvenience, and also point out that this type offault rarely occurs in the Omega z000.

—Finally, may we say that this was an exceptional mistake and is unlikely to occur again. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

—Replacements for the faulty articles are on their way to you, and you should receive them tomorrow. We are sure that you will be satisfied with them and there will be no repetition of the faults. Thank you for your patience in this matter, and we look forward to hearing from you again.