Unit 8
Dealing with problems
Objectives
Focus
Warming up
8.1 What seems to be the problem?
8.2 We all make mistakes –sometimes!
8.3 Complaining and apologizing
8.4 Friday afternoon,Delivery problems
8.5 Only the best is good enough
8.6 Monday morning,After-sales problems
Sum-up
Assignment
Objectives
When finishing learning this unit,you should be able
to:
Deal with some kinds of problems encountered in
business,
Complain and apologize by letter,fax or e-mail,
Focus
Resolving the problems that occur in
International trade and daily work life.
Writing to complain and apologize.
Warming up
In business,customers are sometimes dissatisfied with a
product or service after it has been delivered and paid
for--maybe because they have unreasonable
expectations,maybe because the service really is bad.
In our daily life,we always get involved in some
annoying situation,Maybe you bought something and
found it broken when back at home,What did you do
then?
Look at the pictures,what seems to be the problem?
What are they going to say?
8.1
What seems to be the problems?
A Discussion
B Listening
A Discussion
Look at the pictures,
What do you think has happened?
What are the people going to say?
What would you do in each situation
B Listening
You’ll hear eight short phone calls,Match the
number of each call to one of these sentences,
Answers to B
1 a
2 c
3 f
4 e
5 g
6 i
7 1
8 k
8.2
We all make mistakes!
A Case study (reading & discussion)
B Case study (listening,reading &discussion
C Role play
D Writing
A Case study (reading & discussion)
Study the case,What’s your role?
Read the two notes and discuss:
Q1,What do you think may have happened?
Q2,What should you do?
B Case study
Listen to a telephone message
Read the two more documents at File 75
Every group make a discussion and decide what
to do.
(As the order has been placed with Uniplex by
Zenith,there is now a binding contract between
the companies which can only be cancelled by
mutual agreement,)
C role-play
Role-play the conversations,(on the phone or face-to-face)
There are two role-plays,one conversation between the
Zenith buyer and Piero Conti and another between the
Zenith buyer and Lucia Donato.
Make notes before the call,because the situations are
delicate,both Conti and Donato may be disgruntled or
indignant,
Make sure both partners have a turn at being the
Zenith person,so that no one has to play the role of
both Mr,Conti and Ms Donato.
D Writing
Draft their faxes or e-mails,
Answers to D
To,Piero Conti,Uniplex srl,Pisa
From,Zenith International
Dear Mr,Conti,
Re,Our order for MCL88 cable
We regret that we shall have to cancel this order,Unfortunately,a
temporary member of our staff placed the order by mistake
while I was on holiday.
However,we are still very interested in your products,We do
hope that we may be able to do business with you in future,
Perhaps you could contact us to discuss this soon?
We are very sorry about the inconvenience this may have caused.
Regards,
To,Lucia Donato,Uniflex SpA,La Spezia
From,Zenith International
Dear Ms Donato，
We are very sorry about the confusion about our order this month,
There was a slip-up in our buying department during the
holidays,which resulted in a number of errors.
Page 2 of this fax is a copy of the order that should have been
sent to you,As you will see,this is exactly the same as last
month’s order,I hope that you will be able to fill the order,in
spite of our delay.
I apologize again for the inconvenience caused,Thank you for
drawing our attention to the situation and for your patience.
Looking forward to seeing you next time you are in ____
Best wishes,
8.3
Complaining and apologizing
A,Listening
B,Reading & Writing
C,Role play
D,Discussion
E,Role play (speaking)
A,Listening
You’ll hear four conversations,
Note down what the problem is in each case and
what action is to be taken.
Answers to A
PROBLEM
1,Wrong size paper –
wrongly labeled box
2,forgot to send in
Eastern region order
3,wrong quality
delivered (not A1
quality)
4,color negatives not
sent
ACTION to be taken
Refund,￡11.95
Telex the order t Compass International
Charge 20% les for the order
AND ship load of A1 tomorrow morning
Mr,Patel will collect them tomorrow
personally
B Reading & writing
Look at the extracts from four letters.
Complete each sentence,
What would you write in your reply to each as if
it was your fault in each case?
Answers to B
1,… confirm that you have received the order and
that you have the goods in stock？
REPLY
Please accept our apologies for not having
confirmed your order,The reason is that we
have been understaffed this month as there has
been a flu epidemic here,We can confirm that
the order has been received and will be shipped
to you tomorrow,in accordance with your
instructions.
2,… please look into this matter？ We can only
assume that this shipping note was sent in error
and that the goods have not been dispatched.
REPLY
We are very sorry for this mistake,Our
dispatch manager discovered at the last moment
that your order was incomplete and he delayed
the shipment until the missing parts had been
found,Unfortunately,the shipping advice had
already been posted and we failed to inform you
of the delay.
I am pleased to inform you that the missing
parts have now been packed and left our works
yesterday．
3…,refund the difference,which I calculate to be
$72.50 for five nights.
REPLY
We wish to apologize for our mistake in
overcharging you for your room,I have looked into
the matter and discover that you were charged at
the double room rate by mistake,I have refunded
the sum of $72.50 to your MasterCard account and
enclose the refund slip.
In view of our error and in the hope that you
will stay with us again,may I offer you a special
discount of 15% for your next stay at our hotel?
4,… arrange for the missing items to be shipped to us
at once？
REPLY
Please accept our apologies for this
mistake,Since your order was placed,we have
begun using now new boxes which contain 100
items,Your order was short by 3,520 items,A
further 36 boxes are on their way to you now.
C Role play
Instead of being dealt with by letter,the same
situations are dealt with on the phone,
Works in pairs,students role-play the
conversations,
D Discussion
What are more excuses that may be used to cover up
for a mistake?
a typing error
a keyboard error
a misunderstanding
a bad telephone line
pressure of work temporary staff
bad weather delaying delivery
your suppliers letting you down
E Role play
Assignment,
Student A should look at File 20
student B at File 51,
Use the expressions in the speech balloon,
8.4 Friday afternoon,
Delivery problems
A Case study
B Case study (reading,writing,role play)
A Case study
Listen to the recording of a telephone message from Mr,Robinson,
the production manager,
Q1,What is the problem?
Q2,How to solve it?
(The company has received the wrong components and if they aren't
replaced fast,the production line will have to stop.)
Read the fax:
Q,When was delivery promised for?
(In the fax delivery was promised for 30 May.)
The letter can be used as a MODEL for the ‘apologetic letter’,In
the letter the reason given was a late delivery by Ocean View’s
suppliers.
Discuss in pairs and make their decisions.
If you've decided what to do,role-play the phone calls,with one
student acting for Pacific International,one for Ocean View,Or
direct the students towards one of the options,letter,fax,or e-mail.
Suggested solution for A
Phone Ocean View and ask for all or part of the
order to be air-freighted or shipped at once,Or
maybe find another supplier locally who can
deliver more quickly.
B Case study
Read this memo.
Q,What is the problem? What to do?
(The goods are damaged,but it's not clear who is
responsible for this - so the students must decide
whether or not to accept responsibility and agree to
Arctic Refrigeration’s demand for credit.)
Write an apologetic letter,students may have to refer
back to Mr,Duvall's letter in step A3,which they can
use as a model.
Role-play the phone calls,with one student acting for
Atlantic International,one for Arctic Refrigeration,and
the others for Observers.
8.6
Monday morning,After-sales problems
A Case study (reading & writing)
B Case study (reading & writing)
A Case study
1,Read the message and the letter,
What is the problem?
Discuss how to solve it?
(You have already written to complain about
Fox Industries’ after-sales service but received
no reply,Now a new machine has gone wrong,
possibly as a result of incompetent servicing by
Fox's engineer.）
2,Decide what action you should take in this
situation
3,Draft a suitable letter,fax or e-mail –or make
notes for a phone call.
4,Compare your draft or notes with another pair
or group
5,Look at File 76,where you will see an
unexpectedly apologetic,placatory fax from Mr,
Reynard,which you must read,discuss and
respond to.
6,One or two groups report their solutions to the
whole class.
B Reading
Read the two faxes,decide what you are going to
do in each case,
Q,So what exactly has gone wrong in these situations?
(In the first case,the customer has been supplied with
goods that don't work properly,In the second case,
the customer has been sent a handbook which has
missing pages.)
Sum-up:
In this unit,we learnt:
How to deal with all kinds of problems
How to complain and apologize in trade.
Assignment:
Write a letter to complain delivery problems.
Dealing with problems
Objectives
Focus
Warming up
8.1 What seems to be the problem?
8.2 We all make mistakes –sometimes!
8.3 Complaining and apologizing
8.4 Friday afternoon,Delivery problems
8.5 Only the best is good enough
8.6 Monday morning,After-sales problems
Sum-up
Assignment
Objectives
When finishing learning this unit,you should be able
to:
Deal with some kinds of problems encountered in
business,
Complain and apologize by letter,fax or e-mail,
Focus
Resolving the problems that occur in
International trade and daily work life.
Writing to complain and apologize.
Warming up
In business,customers are sometimes dissatisfied with a
product or service after it has been delivered and paid
for--maybe because they have unreasonable
expectations,maybe because the service really is bad.
In our daily life,we always get involved in some
annoying situation,Maybe you bought something and
found it broken when back at home,What did you do
then?
Look at the pictures,what seems to be the problem?
What are they going to say?
8.1
What seems to be the problems?
A Discussion
B Listening
A Discussion
Look at the pictures,
What do you think has happened?
What are the people going to say?
What would you do in each situation
B Listening
You’ll hear eight short phone calls,Match the
number of each call to one of these sentences,
Answers to B
1 a
2 c
3 f
4 e
5 g
6 i
7 1
8 k
8.2
We all make mistakes!
A Case study (reading & discussion)
B Case study (listening,reading &discussion
C Role play
D Writing
A Case study (reading & discussion)
Study the case,What’s your role?
Read the two notes and discuss:
Q1,What do you think may have happened?
Q2,What should you do?
B Case study
Listen to a telephone message
Read the two more documents at File 75
Every group make a discussion and decide what
to do.
(As the order has been placed with Uniplex by
Zenith,there is now a binding contract between
the companies which can only be cancelled by
mutual agreement,)
C role-play
Role-play the conversations,(on the phone or face-to-face)
There are two role-plays,one conversation between the
Zenith buyer and Piero Conti and another between the
Zenith buyer and Lucia Donato.
Make notes before the call,because the situations are
delicate,both Conti and Donato may be disgruntled or
indignant,
Make sure both partners have a turn at being the
Zenith person,so that no one has to play the role of
both Mr,Conti and Ms Donato.
D Writing
Draft their faxes or e-mails,
Answers to D
To,Piero Conti,Uniplex srl,Pisa
From,Zenith International
Dear Mr,Conti,
Re,Our order for MCL88 cable
We regret that we shall have to cancel this order,Unfortunately,a
temporary member of our staff placed the order by mistake
while I was on holiday.
However,we are still very interested in your products,We do
hope that we may be able to do business with you in future,
Perhaps you could contact us to discuss this soon?
We are very sorry about the inconvenience this may have caused.
Regards,
To,Lucia Donato,Uniflex SpA,La Spezia
From,Zenith International
Dear Ms Donato，
We are very sorry about the confusion about our order this month,
There was a slip-up in our buying department during the
holidays,which resulted in a number of errors.
Page 2 of this fax is a copy of the order that should have been
sent to you,As you will see,this is exactly the same as last
month’s order,I hope that you will be able to fill the order,in
spite of our delay.
I apologize again for the inconvenience caused,Thank you for
drawing our attention to the situation and for your patience.
Looking forward to seeing you next time you are in ____
Best wishes,
8.3
Complaining and apologizing
A,Listening
B,Reading & Writing
C,Role play
D,Discussion
E,Role play (speaking)
A,Listening
You’ll hear four conversations,
Note down what the problem is in each case and
what action is to be taken.
Answers to A
PROBLEM
1,Wrong size paper –
wrongly labeled box
2,forgot to send in
Eastern region order
3,wrong quality
delivered (not A1
quality)
4,color negatives not
sent
ACTION to be taken
Refund,￡11.95
Telex the order t Compass International
Charge 20% les for the order
AND ship load of A1 tomorrow morning
Mr,Patel will collect them tomorrow
personally
B Reading & writing
Look at the extracts from four letters.
Complete each sentence,
What would you write in your reply to each as if
it was your fault in each case?
Answers to B
1,… confirm that you have received the order and
that you have the goods in stock？
REPLY
Please accept our apologies for not having
confirmed your order,The reason is that we
have been understaffed this month as there has
been a flu epidemic here,We can confirm that
the order has been received and will be shipped
to you tomorrow,in accordance with your
instructions.
2,… please look into this matter？ We can only
assume that this shipping note was sent in error
and that the goods have not been dispatched.
REPLY
We are very sorry for this mistake,Our
dispatch manager discovered at the last moment
that your order was incomplete and he delayed
the shipment until the missing parts had been
found,Unfortunately,the shipping advice had
already been posted and we failed to inform you
of the delay.
I am pleased to inform you that the missing
parts have now been packed and left our works
yesterday．
3…,refund the difference,which I calculate to be
$72.50 for five nights.
REPLY
We wish to apologize for our mistake in
overcharging you for your room,I have looked into
the matter and discover that you were charged at
the double room rate by mistake,I have refunded
the sum of $72.50 to your MasterCard account and
enclose the refund slip.
In view of our error and in the hope that you
will stay with us again,may I offer you a special
discount of 15% for your next stay at our hotel?
4,… arrange for the missing items to be shipped to us
at once？
REPLY
Please accept our apologies for this
mistake,Since your order was placed,we have
begun using now new boxes which contain 100
items,Your order was short by 3,520 items,A
further 36 boxes are on their way to you now.
C Role play
Instead of being dealt with by letter,the same
situations are dealt with on the phone,
Works in pairs,students role-play the
conversations,
D Discussion
What are more excuses that may be used to cover up
for a mistake?
a typing error
a keyboard error
a misunderstanding
a bad telephone line
pressure of work temporary staff
bad weather delaying delivery
your suppliers letting you down
E Role play
Assignment,
Student A should look at File 20
student B at File 51,
Use the expressions in the speech balloon,
8.4 Friday afternoon,
Delivery problems
A Case study
B Case study (reading,writing,role play)
A Case study
Listen to the recording of a telephone message from Mr,Robinson,
the production manager,
Q1,What is the problem?
Q2,How to solve it?
(The company has received the wrong components and if they aren't
replaced fast,the production line will have to stop.)
Read the fax:
Q,When was delivery promised for?
(In the fax delivery was promised for 30 May.)
The letter can be used as a MODEL for the ‘apologetic letter’,In
the letter the reason given was a late delivery by Ocean View’s
suppliers.
Discuss in pairs and make their decisions.
If you've decided what to do,role-play the phone calls,with one
student acting for Pacific International,one for Ocean View,Or
direct the students towards one of the options,letter,fax,or e-mail.
Suggested solution for A
Phone Ocean View and ask for all or part of the
order to be air-freighted or shipped at once,Or
maybe find another supplier locally who can
deliver more quickly.
B Case study
Read this memo.
Q,What is the problem? What to do?
(The goods are damaged,but it's not clear who is
responsible for this - so the students must decide
whether or not to accept responsibility and agree to
Arctic Refrigeration’s demand for credit.)
Write an apologetic letter,students may have to refer
back to Mr,Duvall's letter in step A3,which they can
use as a model.
Role-play the phone calls,with one student acting for
Atlantic International,one for Arctic Refrigeration,and
the others for Observers.
8.6
Monday morning,After-sales problems
A Case study (reading & writing)
B Case study (reading & writing)
A Case study
1,Read the message and the letter,
What is the problem?
Discuss how to solve it?
(You have already written to complain about
Fox Industries’ after-sales service but received
no reply,Now a new machine has gone wrong,
possibly as a result of incompetent servicing by
Fox's engineer.）
2,Decide what action you should take in this
situation
3,Draft a suitable letter,fax or e-mail –or make
notes for a phone call.
4,Compare your draft or notes with another pair
or group
5,Look at File 76,where you will see an
unexpectedly apologetic,placatory fax from Mr,
Reynard,which you must read,discuss and
respond to.
6,One or two groups report their solutions to the
whole class.
B Reading
Read the two faxes,decide what you are going to
do in each case,
Q,So what exactly has gone wrong in these situations?
(In the first case,the customer has been supplied with
goods that don't work properly,In the second case,
the customer has been sent a handbook which has
missing pages.)
Sum-up:
In this unit,we learnt:
How to deal with all kinds of problems
How to complain and apologize in trade.
Assignment:
Write a letter to complain delivery problems.
