General Training Task 1 model answer: Complaint about a delayed delivery
The question
You recently ordered a piece of furniture online, but there were problems with the delivery. Write a letter to the company. In your letter: describe what you ordered; explain what went wrong with the delivery; say what you would like the company to do.
Model answer
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to complain about the delivery of an order I placed on your website on 3 March (order number 48217).
I purchased an oak dining table with six matching chairs, which cost a total of £640. At the time of ordering, I selected the next-day delivery option, for which I paid an additional £25, as I needed the furniture for a family gathering that weekend.
Unfortunately, the delivery was unsatisfactory in several respects. Firstly, it arrived four days late, by which time my event had already taken place. Secondly, two of the chairs were badly scratched, and one had a cracked leg, making it unsafe to use. When I telephoned your customer service line, I was kept on hold for forty minutes and then told that nobody could help me.
I would therefore be grateful if you could arrange for the three damaged chairs to be collected and replaced within the next seven days. I would also expect a full refund of the £25 next-day delivery charge, since this service was clearly not provided.
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours faithfully,
Daniel Mensah
Why it works
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are covered in their own paragraphs with specific, plausible details (order number, prices, dates).
Coherence & Cohesion
Purpose stated in the first line; 'Firstly… Secondly…' organises the problems; 'therefore' links problems to requests.
Lexical Resource
Consistently formal register: 'unsatisfactory in several respects', 'at your earliest convenience'.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
Polite conditional request ('I would be grateful if you could…'), passive and relative clauses, and a correct formal closing.
Written by Stride as a study model against the public IELTS band descriptors. It has not been marked by an IELTS examiner.
Structure used: Formal letter.