Question

Read this extract from a letter you have recently sent to a friend:

.... Oh, and by the way, don't go to Barry's Restaurant for your birthday. We went there
last night - the service was awful and the food was a disaster! I complained to the head
waiter but he asked me to put it in writing ...

Write your letter of complaint to the restaurant manager (around 220-260 words)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to express my annoyance at the service I received in your restaurant

yesterday. I chose your restaurant to invite three of my important business clients, after having
read a glowing review in "Best Restaurants in Britain 2000", but the reality failed to live up
to my expectations.

First, as stated in the guide book, you had a variety of set meals on the menu. However, only 2
meat dishes and 1 fish dish were on offer yesterday. This deeply disappointed my guests.
Therefore, we chose a starter, main dish and dessert à la carte, but it was not very easy. Many
were unavailable; e.g. we did not have any other choices than onion soup and seafood salad for
a starter.

Furthermore, the meals were not served at the same time. About five minutes after a rump steak
was put on the table for one of my clients, none of the others had been served Therefore, he had
to start alone. I asked your staff to bring all the other meals soon and in another five minutes
only two, including my grilled salmon, were brought to us. When the other one, steamed trout,
was put on the table, the client who had had a rump steak had almost finished.

Finally, the beef steak my client had was overcooked, although he had asked for a medium-
cooked one.

On paying the bill, I complained about this inconvenience to your head waiter, but he
asked me to contact you directly in writing.  I feel that a refund of at least £200, which is half
of our payment, would be appropriate. I look forward to receiving a satisfactory reply within
14 days.  

Yours faithfully,

Jane Smith
Dear Sir or Madam

I am writing to complain about the way I was recently treated in your restaurant. 

Firstly, I have to say that I chose the best restaurant in our city, which yours claims to be,
because I wanted to celebrate our friend's birthday. We expected the service to be polite and
helpful. When I entered the restaurant with my friends, nobody could tell me which table was
not occupied. Furthermore, I had booked a table three weeks before, but was informed that my
name was not on the list. Fortunately, there was one extra table, where we settled ourselves.

Secondly, waiting for soup for more than an hour, not to mention eating stale bread really
annoyed us. What is more, the quality of the served dishes was rather poor. We even wondered
if it hadn’t gone off.  Moreover, we were asked to pay for the water, whereas it stated in your
menu that it was free. After eating a cold dinner and listening to sad music we began to wonder
if we should have gone elsewhere.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we didn't manage to speak to the chef in order to
complain. Instead, we were requested to put our complaint in writing.

As you can see, we found ourselves in a difficult situation that night. The aim of this letter is to
avoid such errors in the future. I do hope you do not continue to discourage guests from
coming to your restaurant, but rather attract more and more visitors.

Yours faithfully,

Piotrek Boj 
_________________________________________________________________________

Dear Sir

I am writing to complain about the efficiency of the service that you offer in your restaurant,
which is, in fact, one of the most recommended places to go in our town.

After having read your wonderful advertisement in "The Sun", I decided to visit your restaurant
with my seriously ill little daughter to celebrate her birthday there. I had booked our table and a
small marzipan teddy bear in your restaurant two weeks in advance. After spending one hour in
your restaurant I was unpleasantly surprised with the inefficiency of your service.

Being ordinary customers, we did not have enough time to eat our dinner, because we were told
to leave our table for another, probably more important, customer. This unbelievable
explanation was given by your service manager and we had no alternative but to accept it.

Regarding the food offered on your menu, I have never seen the French Chicken so badly
prepared. The French rice appeared to be of the same quality, absolutely tasteless and without
any trace of spice. The waiter brought me the bottle of two-year Chablis instead of bringing a
glass of three-year Chardonnay. 

In addition to the bland taste of your food, we were told, that no teddy bear had been reserved
for us and as a result, my daughter was very sad. I was both amused and annoyed with the
answer your waiter gave us, regarding our chance to complain, which is possible only in
writing. 

According to my negative experience, which I have mentioned in this letter, I would be

thankful to receive a letter of apology from you, which should be signed by your service
manager. I hope that he will appreciate my comments and realise the fact that the service
offered by your staff leaves much to be desired.

Yours faithfully,

Andy Warhol
___________________________________________________________________________

Dear Sir or Madam

I am writing in order to complain about the service and the food that was offered to me and my
husband, last Saturday, 11th October. 

First of all, after we were conducted to our table, the waiter did not even care about helping me
to sit down, which was rather disappointing as your restaurant is known to be the
most luxurious in town.

After that, we had to wait about a quarter of an hour till the waiter came to take the order.

On top of that, we received the wrong dish, but we agreed to eat it. However my food
("spaghetti ali pomodoro") was tasteless and my husband's one was salty.

If that was not enough  the waitress spilt wine over my white dress, and completely ruined it.

When we were almost finishing dinner the waiter came by and urged us to finish soon, as there
were other people waiting for our table.

Feeling humiliated by that action we ordered the bill as quickly as possible and we

were absolutely astonished when we saw that the joyless dinner had cost us $273.

I do not think that I have to express myself clearer about how offended I feel by the
unclassifiably bad and disastrous service in your expensive restaurant. Due to this, I am writing
to demand an apology and an explanation about what happened.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

Viviana Ehrenzeller
Dear Sir or Madam

I am writing to complain about the unacceptable treatment that I received in your restaurant last
Friday when I was intending to have dinner with my husband.

First of all, we were given a table just in front of the toilets because there was not any other
available, although we had booked it in advance. Furthermore, we were forced to leave at 10
p.m because someone else had also booked the same table.

Secondly, we had to wait for nearly half an hour to be served and after the long wait we were
obliged to change our minds and ask for meat because there was no lobster left. In fact, only
three out of the seven main courses were available.

I would also like to point out the incompetence of the service because the waiter spilled the
sauce over my husband´s dish even though we had asked him not to do so.

To make matters worse, there was no response when I asked to speak to the manager of the
restaurant so I have been forced to write to make you aware of these unfortunate incidents.

I very much hope that in future you will take note of these mistakes in order to prevent
them from happening again and I am afraid to say that I will have no alternative but to
put the matter in the hands of my solicitors should I not receive compensation within the
next few days.

Yours faithfully,

Carmen Pliego
You recently stayed at Happy Valley Campsite with a group of classmates on an end-of-course
trip, but were disappointed with your stay.
Look at the brochure you received from Happy Valley Campsite before booking the trip and the
notes you made while you were there. Then write a letter to the campsite director complaining
about your stay and asking for compensation on behalf of your group, giving your reasons.

Dear Mr Thompson

I am writing to complain about a holiday I spent at Happy Valley from 12th to 20th August
with a group of student friends. We were unsatisfied with our stay for several reasons, and feel
that we were misled by your brochure.

Oh the financial side, our first complaint is that we were charged the full fee despite the fact
that we had originally been quoted a price with a student discount. Furthermore, and contrary to
what is stated in your brochure, friends who had brought their own tents were not allowed to
use them and had to pay to rent tents they did not need.

If this were not enough, we have complaints about the site itself. The trailers were cramped and
had not been cleaned for some time. Although there was a mini-market, it was not at all
‘convenient’; apart from being extremely expensive, it was closed for most of the day^ Finally,
I would hardly call one bar and one cinema in Grimscia ‘fantastic nightlife’ as your brochure
claims.

I tried to speak to you during our stay, but this was impossible.

I feel that your brochure is misleading. I expect to receive financial compensation for our
disappointment, otherwise I will take the matter further by contacting an organisation dealing
with advertising standards.

I look forward to hearing from you

Yours sincerely,

James Brown