If you are not happy with the quality of service or product, it’s important to speak to the business directly. You can start the conversation with a manager or the business owner in person or you can write a letter. In this post, we’re going to show you how to write an effective complaint letter.
Format:
- If possible, type up your complaint letter. If you don’t have a computer, stop by your local library – oftentimes they’ll have public access computers for members to use. If you handwrite your letter, make sure your printing is neat and easy to read.
- On your letter, include your full name, mailing address, telephone number, email address and the date.
Content:
- Stick to the facts and be concise. Give a summary of what happened (in a timeline format, if appropriate) and note any verbal promises or guarantees made to you by the seller.
- Be constructive: state what you think a fair, realistic and satisfactory resolution would look like.
- Tell the business when you expect a response back (give them a reasonable amount of time, such as two or three weeks).
Sending it out:
- Make sure you send out your letter in such a way that you can prove the business received it. (If you’re mailing out a hardcopy letter, send it via registered mail and keep the receipt; if you’re emailing out an electronic letter, require a read receipt).
Reminders:
- Be polite, professional and non-threatening.
- Include photocopies of all your supporting documents (such as receipts, contracts, warranties and guarantees). Always hold on to the originals!
ADDITIONAL READING:
Excuse me, there’s a fly in my soup
How to request a refund from your credit card provider
How to write a letter to your MLA
require a read receipt via email is the most useless advice you can give. Most email clients by default are set not to send one. And most web based services don’t even allow you to request that option let alone send one. Should advise not using email or avoiding it.
Hi Brian, thanks for the feedback. How your email functions is definitely something to consider.
I was informed by my friend that she went to a a Fruiticana in Richmond British Columbia, Canada today. She was going to pick up 2 items for my family along with hers only to find out that…
ONE 4 L milk carton was priced at 15 dollars and the flour to make chapaatis was priced up to 25 dollars a bag when it is usually 14 dollars a bag.
Could you please look into this?It is very heartbreaking to think that a time such as our climate is at the moment that businesses would take advantage of fellow canadians!
Please let me know if you will be following up with this and how soon I will hear about this potential illegal price gauging.
Hi Charnjit, thank you for letting us know. The Competition Bureau is a federal organization that oversees this kind of issue. Here’s the link to their website. Please note that as of now, they are not taking phone calls but they are responding to email inquiries. They may take a little longer to respond but hopefully, they can get back to you on this.
quick comment
a local gym franchise follow all the covid19 protocols and as a customer = I appreciate that.
the thing that bugs me is that they kept their fees and marketing the same before covid19. The service got decrease, as well availability and access to the facility.
I am not complaining about the security measures, I am more about that all the members, should have a discount or a some sort of benefit.
interesting is you are late on the monthly payment. They call you right away to pay & charge u the gym improvement fees OR warning you for being late / no show during your reserve time (verbal, $, cancellation). that its a double standard and should be regulated. Please, I would like to put a written complain.
Hi, thank you for your comment. We don’t oversee what a business charges, the gym is allowed to set their fees and determine their own policies about attendance and payment reminders. I assume that you have already spoken to them about your concerns but if you haven’t, I would encourage you to do that.
Hello,
We had booked a swiss-air flight ticket in August from Mumbai to Vancouver using website mytrip.com. Initially, swiss-air postponed this ticket from January 4 to January 5 2022 and we accepted that but later they cancelled our ticket and gave us an option to fly on January 16th 2022, which was almost 12 days apart from my original flight date. This action by swiss-air and my-trip.com caused me and my husband major inconvenience.
1. My Canadian employer would not allow me extra 12 days from my originally approved leave.
2. Due to the fact that rebooking was super expensive and no reasonable option was offered by swiss-air, we had to rebook our flights to January 9th (chepaest and manageable option available).
3. Ultimately, since they cancelled our flight, which was not by our own choice, we had to rebook our tickets and they also charged us cancellation fees. Really?
4. Due to this rebooking, our total hours of journey increased from about 24 hours to 40 hours and we may need to worry about rt-pcr test at every stop-over. Due to I recently underwent a major surgery, I was not planning to travel to india this year but beacuse of the family reason, we need to travel and these additional hours of journey and number of rt-pcr tests are going to be extra hardships for us.
Swiss-air should have offered us better flight options within reasonable time period and lesser hardships. it could be through swiss-air, any airline within their alliance or any other flight. Instead of giving us reasonable options, agent only mentioned that system does not allow them and did not show them any flight availability within reasonable time. Being into airline business, these kind of issues must be very common for them so we dont believe that this answer is acceptable.
Hi Sarika, sorry to hear about your experience. Have you tried to complain to the airline company directly? I’m just wondering if you had an opportunity to approach them to see if they would refund you the cancellation fee or compensate for the difference you are paying for the new flights. If you haven’t already, it might be worth asking them first. If you don’t hear back from them or they are not able to offer anything, please take a look at this page of our website. You may qualify to go through our complaint handling system after you’ve tried to resolve the issue with the airline. I hope this information is helpful to you!