Complaint Letters
Whether you call it a claim letter or a consumer-action letter, an effective complaint letter gets results because it provides the recipient with something that demands (literally and figuratively) attention. Don't misunderstand: When making “demands,” your letter shouldn't be one full of ultimatums. Quite the contrary. A complaint letter with tactful, logically arranged details effectively presents your grievance — and provides you with a record of your message, too. Complaint letters may be called for in situations such as billing disputes, neighborhood problems, order delays, incorrect or incomplete shipment receipts, and policy disputes.
(Date)
Dear Mrs. Jones,
I'm writing to you about concerns my wife and I have about your dog. Your dachshund's barking has us concerned that should your dog ever escape from your own fenced-in backyard, it would pose an attack threat to our children when they play in our yard. I believe we should set up a meeting within the next week to discuss this situation.
Sincerely,
Paul Smith
Keep in mind that your complaint letter has a better chance of getting the results you desire (a resolution to your complaint) if written in polite, logical terms.
A complaint letter should state the problem and ask for what you feel is a fair resolution to that problem. To be effective, it should be no longer than one page. If you feel that you must provide extraneous details that would extend that length to beyond a page, you should strive to put such information in an enclosed supporting document instead.
Consider any letter that you write while angry as a form of therapy — a way to vent your frustration and brainstorm the first draft of your complaint letter at the same time. Then, once you've had a chance to distance yourself from your anger and be objective, edit the letter so that its wording states the problem in terms that will help you reach your objective.
