Task 1 General · Formal letter · Consumer
Complaint to a delivery company about a damaged item
A formal complaint where the band 6.5 letter keeps slipping into the tone of a text message, and the band 9 letter gets angry without ever sounding it.
The question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Write at least 150 words. You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your letter as follows: Dear Sir or Madam,
An item you ordered online arrived damaged. When you contacted the delivery company, your complaint was not dealt with properly. Write a letter to the customer services manager of the delivery company.
- Explain what you ordered and what condition it arrived in
- Describe what happened when you first contacted the company
- Say what you would like the company to do about it
A 150-word letter in a formal, semi-formal or personal register. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
All three letters complain about the same two things; only the band 9 letter treats the mishandled complaint as a second grievance in its own right rather than as background to the first.
The three answers
Band 6.5
165 words (the task asks for at least 150)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing this letter to you because I want to complain about the delivery which I received from your company on 14 March. I ordered a glass coffee table from an online shop and when it arrived the box was crushed on one side and the glass top was broken in two places. The driver didn't wait for me to check it, he just left it at the door and went away.
After that I called your customer service on the same day. The person told me that they will call me back within 48 hours3 but nobody called me. I called again two times and every time they told me the same thing.2 Honestly it's really annoying because I have took a day off work1 to receive this delivery.
I would like you to arrange the collection of the damaged table and give me the full refund. Please reply to me as soon as possible.4
Yours faithfully, D. Okonjo
What an examiner notices
1. Lexical resource
“Honestly it's really annoying because I have took a day off work”
Three problems in one sentence: a conversational discourse marker, a contraction, and a past participle error. In a formal complaint the tone alone would cost marks.
2. Task achievement
“I called again two times and every time they told me the same thing.”
The second bullet is the strongest grievance available and it is disposed of here in a single sentence. Nothing is said about what was promised, by whom, or how long the writer waited.
3. Grammatical range and accuracy
“The person told me that they will call me back within 48 hours”
Reported speech after a past reporting verb needs 'would'. It is recoverable, which is why it sits at this band rather than lower.
4. Coherence and cohesion
“Please reply to me as soon as possible.”
A formal complaint closes better with a specific timeframe. 'As soon as possible' gives the company nothing to be measured against.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
Compare another question
- Task 1 General · Formal letter
Objecting to a development on public land
A formal objection to a local council, where the difference between bands is the difference between saying you are unhappy and giving an official something they can act on.
- Task 1 General · Formal letter
Speculative application to a company with no advertised vacancy
A formal letter with no job advertisement to reply to, where the band 9 answer solves the real problem — giving a stranger a reason to keep reading.
- Task 1 General · Informal letter
Apologising for missing a friend's family event
An apology to a close friend, where the band 9 letter takes responsibility instead of explaining itself — a distinction the lower bands miss entirely.