A Letter of Complaint (Sample)

Room 101, 10/f

Block 1
Happy Garden
Shatin, NT

Manager
Happy Pasta House
12 Shatin Road
Shatin NT

2nd December, 2021

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to express my frustrations/anger/disappointment with a recent experience I had

at your restaurant. I visited your restaurant at this this location for my friend’s birthday

celebration. Before our visit, we had a very high expectation to this Michelin three-star

restaurant. However, I was surprised/shocked/astonished at what happened with the quality

of food and service.

The quality of food was way below standard. On that day, we ordered a tomato spaghetti

with prawns, a medium-well steak, with drinks and dessert. Although the food came 10

minutes later, we recognized the spaghetti was rather cold. It was clearly not freshly cooked.

Also, there were only 3 pieces of prawns. Was that a proper proportion for a sharing-sized

pasta? Then, when we cut the relatively small steak open, we recognized it was very raw and

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dry. This was definitely not what we saw from the pictures on the menu and online reviews.

We paid $358 for this steak. We were very upset about it.

The staff service was very unprofessional. The staff avoided eye contact with us and looked

very impatient while we were waiting to order our food. We had waited for more than fifteen

minutes before somebody could take our orders. Later, when we talked to the staff about the

poor quality of food. They even rolled their eyes and said it was not their responsibility. They

simply refused to explain or get us a better dish. Was that the quality of service a Michelin

three-star restaurant should provide? I bet not. This was devastating.

This was actually my third visit to your restaurant since it opened two years ago. I had never

experienced any issues with your restaurant. I am both bothered and concerned by the fact

that your place was serving such a low quality of food with unprofessional service, and I am

now hesitant to trust the quality of other dishes at your restaurant. These issues could have

affected a number of other customers as well. For compensation, I am now asking Happy

Pasta House to reimburse me in cash of $300 for half of the cost of the dinner. You are also

strongly advised to provide your staff with a professional training course.

I hope to hear back from you about this unfortunate incident by 20th December. Please

contact me as soon as possible at 62358193 or via email at vwong@xmail.com.

Yours Faithfully,

Victoria

Victoria Wong

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 Points to Note:

1. Salutation à Dear Sir/Madam,

a. Write the whole phrase!
b. Capitalization and comma!

2. Introduction (around 50 words)

a. Keyword: ‘disappointment / frustration / anger’
b. Specific date & location (‘at this location’ // ‘at the Mongkok branch’)
c. Context / occasion of your visit
d. Main points: food and service

3. Body paragraphs
[*Past tense] [**ONE paragraph: food + ANOTHER paragraph: service]
[***specific food items!]
What to include in each paragraph?
a. TS (Short and simple!)
b. What happened?
c. CS: How did you feel?

4. Follow-up actions
[*specific] [**DEADLINE: specific deadline]
a. staff training course
b. food quality check report

5. Closing
Yours Faithfully,
(Sign)
(Full name)

6. Language
a. make use of 1-2 questions
b. study and memorize some useful words to express your negative feelings

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7. Organization
a. Keep your sentences short and clear. Have only 1-2 focus in each sentence.
[Don’t use so many commas all the time!]
b. Be clear about the paragraphing and structure. [Plan before your write!]

8. Do not leave the beginning of the paragraphs blank.

Skip a line ONLY when you are starting a new paragraph.

9. Always DOUBLE CHECK your tenses and spellings!

Your Own Notes: