Great Letters That Work Hunt

Michelle

bowesworld wrote:

We wrote this letter to Wee Chef,

15 Xxxx Xxxx
LOxxxxxxxxxx
Customer Service Department East Lxxxxx
Little Chef Support Centre Exxx 0xx
Gainsborough House
Houghton Hall Office Park
DUNSTABLE
Beds.
LU5 5XF. 2nd June 2005






Dear Sir / Madam

I recently visited my son in Lancashire and on my way back home had the misfortune to experience your ‘restaurant’ at Seaton Burn.

I have travelled all over the world in my younger days and do not expect particularly high standards from motorway services in this country – but you managed to reach a new low.

Not only was the food overpriced and barely edible (which I did point out at the time to the waitress) but the toilet facilities were absolutely disgusting. Some public toilets are pretty bad, but I have never experienced such dreadful ‘facilities’ in a restaurant which is allegedly providing ‘services’ for weary motorists.

I am sure you can appreciate that to have to stand in someone else’s (or probably several others) urine is not exactly a pleasant experience and having to spend the rest of my journey smelling of it was even less pleasant.

The state of the toilets was also pointed out to the waitress who served us, who explained that ‘she had not had time to clean them yet’ (this was at about 6pm) –
this was however, maybe just as well as she was serving food – I dread to think that this might have been contaminated as well, although it couldn’t have tasted much worse anyway.

Perhaps you should consider employing a cleaner, a chef who can actually cook and staff who are capable of being polite and helpful. However, if your objective is to ensure that any tourists who do visit this country do not return, you are bound to succeed, as I certainly won’t be back.

As a retired Director of a multi-national company, I would suggest you visit Canada where it is possible to eat in clean, comfortable surroundings, where the staff actually smile and are polite to customers - and all for a fraction of the price you would pay in the UK.
I expect it is too much to ask that you consider reimbursing me the £9.81 I paid for the appalling food and £40.00 for a new pair of shoes – I am sorry but I simply had to throw the ones that had trekked through your urine-sodden floor in the bin.

I can only hope that this letter might result in action being taken to prevent some other poor motorist having to endure a journey home smelling like they had had an accident (and not of the motoring kind.)


Yours faithfully




Xxxxxx Xxxxxx.


Outcome:

A voucher for £10 a an offer to refund the price of a new pair of shoes.

Dirty toilets? I think the local environmental health department should be told.
That will shake them up I can promise you!! They are duty bound to investigate a complaint and where there is one breach of conditions, there is usually another!
Might not address your immediate issue, but its satisfying to know that the restaurant will be under scrutiny for time to come.....

webmasterpolo

Soooo, I would suggest being careful with what information you provide in your letter. If they are already mailing your mothers address, l would write the letter from her address, don't make the mistake of writing from your own address and doulbing your problem when they add you to their mailing list as well.

IMO I don't think you will get anywhere writing to them. You could start returning to sender the letters they send saying not known at this address, they may then remove your mother from the mailing list as they can see they are wasting money in postage if you don't open it and return it. This of course requires them to have procedures in place to bother removing out of date details.

If this is a serious problem you could consider redirecting your mothers mail to your address for a period of time. This would then remove the distress from your mother and allow you to deal with these letters and then hand real mail to your mother. This of course would cost a small fee, but you may consider this worth it if it's a big problem. Or if you visit your mother on a regular basis you could agree with her to go through her mail with you so you are on hand to assist.

Hope some of the above helps.

DavidC_4

webmasterpolo wrote:

DavidC, get their headquarters address, write to the CEO of the company by name, enclose all documentation receipts etc, perscriptions, doctors letters etc. Threaten to sue for distress loss of holiday etc. Do the same kind of thing to the travel company. Did you pay by credit card? If so you have another chance with them. One will give you what you want.

Thanks webmasterpolo - I've gone past that stage already - wrote to their CEO - no reply, wrote to their Customer service manager (international signed for) - no reply, Emailed their UK branch and they, at least, replied to me. They have now refunded money that they took from my account by mistake (?) and credited me with a very small extra payment (after Emailing me saying that they had credited my accound with a much larger sum - which they hadn't - it was, apparently another mistake!) but I want some recompense for the stress/inconvenience and expense that we incurred/are still incurring, and I wondered if anyone had already used a letter that successfully managed to frighten a US company (or at least stop them from just fobbing me off by saying that's all you're getting and there is no process for pursuing it any further ).
I will give them a little more time to answer (it's only been 2 months so far) and then, I guess, it's solicitor time.
Thanks
DavidC

loopy_lass

thanks for replies, i dont really want to discuss the issues on here, as they are someone elses... will speak to them & see what they say... hope you understand

thanks for info, re places, will look them up

cheers

loops

Freddie_Snowbits

When the assistant wrongly charges you, here is one that getts them going. Write to the establisment thus: -

Account Transaction Visa (12:57pm)



I am sure that due to your negligence, an extra transaction for £****, which was transacted on dd mmm yyy is an error caused by your accounts department. This was due to the fact the assistant put in the wrong amount to be debited.

Please ensure that by 07:00 hrs on Monday Next (7 days) that the extra transaction for £**** has been refunded, plus expenses, to my account and corrective action taken to ensure that this does not recur.

Failure to remedy this expediently shall result in a civil claim being instigated without further correspondence.

I look forward to you immediate response.

Regards,

If they do not respond within 7 days, send this to the Chief Financial officer. You can normally find out who this is through Companies House

FINAL NOTICE



Account Transaction Visa (12:57pm)



I wrote to your colleague on last week regarding the fraudulent transaction carried out by your appointed employee at the where, where at 1

Unfortunately, as of today, the credit of £**** has not been returned to my credit card.

You shall find enclosed, a copy of my Internet statement clearly showing the transaction stated above.

Also, a copy of the transaction receipt, which, at the time was not willingly forthcoming from your colleague, clearly identified as ‘Staff’. I also asked at the time for a voided transaction receipt, your colleague was not willing to issue one at the time.

I trust you will view this as an oversight and put into place effective remedial action to ensure that this does not recur. Also, you shall reimburse my account with, and any charges, immediately.

Failure to take the necessary action in 28 days, solicitors shall, without further warning, be instructed to take the necessary action to recover the amount and charges, as appropriate.

I look forward to you immediate response.

dougodurban

I sent the following to Powergen, who had overcharged me. The result? The bill reduced from almost £800, to less than £100.
"Dear Sir or Madam.

I have just received the “bill” shewing what it is you think we owe you for gas and electricity, and to say that I am shocked is an understatement. No wonder it took you so long to send this paperwork out. Perhaps you too were shocked by it.

How on earth can you justify sending out bills, or final demands, based on “ESTIMATES”?.

I was conscientious enough to phone you with the readings, and to send in the required paperwork, when we left our previous address, the one in question, and those figures bear no relationship to the “estimated” ones you wish to charge us for. And I have spoken to your people several times informing them of this.

I would strongly suggest that you find that information, and adjust your bill accordingly, or I will inform the relevant authorities of this potential malfeasance.

An apology on it’s own will not be acceptable.

Yours,

......................

C.C.

Sunday Times Consumer Care.
Consumer Association.
Energywatch.

dougodurban

F/a Claire, Customer Services, Orange.
I sent the following to Orange to shew how much I appreciated the excellent service I recieved from them, albeit that I could not use phone.
"
Dear Claire.
Many thanks for the prompt and courteous attention you paid to my problem with my new Orange phone. I was sorry that I had to leave Orange, especially as I had become very attached to the nice new phone, and had it set up as I liked, but a phone is only as good as it's coverage, so we had to part.
I have enclosed the phone, and charger in the packet you supplied, along with the original Orange statement which shew I spent £39.99, which I would appreciate when you can. You will understand that I no longer have the original box etc, but any redundant paperwork, cardboard in this house is recycled as soon as the wife gets her hands on it!.
Once again, thank you for your understanding. I’m really impressed by your customer service. If someone does a good job, I believe the world should be told, so I will be telling fellow consumers at the moneysavingexpert web site.
Yours sincerely,

broin

I don't know if this is the right place to post this - it is about writing letters so hopefully it's okay. What I need is a letter that will persuade my former landlord to return the deposit on the flat my girlfriend and I recently moved out of.

We lived in the flat for a year, paid rent every month by standing order, and left the flat in pretty much the same state as it was when we moved in. There was no inventory and no inspection undertaken when we moved in or when we moved out. It's a London flat so we paid £1500 deposit (six weeks rent); the landlord is claiming that we have made it necessary for him to do £2100 worth of repairs. We really don't think that he has legal grounds to do this and we can only assume that he is trying to rip us off. I won't go into the details here, but we believe he has personal reasons for doing this.

I plan to phone him tomorrow to go through the deductions he's made, refute them, and request that he refunds the deposit in its entirety. I expect him to refuse to do so and I will therefore be writing a letter to him requesting that he either refunds the deposit entirely or provides a full statement of the deductions he's made, together with copies of receipts or, where appropriate, quotes from tradesment for any work done. If this fails I am prepared to follow through with court action if necessary. However, I would prefer things not to reach this stage so instead I want to write a letter that is so persuasive that he refunds the deposit immediately.

Has anyone had success with writing letters like this to landlords or does anyone have suggestions for how I can make my letter work?

Thanks for your help,
Broin

raeble

bronin get in touch with your council, they should have department that deals with this sort of thing. My sister went to them when she was having problems. Also try the citizens advice bureau.

loopy_lass

bronin or put a couple of mackerel under the floor boards!! nahhh just kidding. surely he has to prove he needed to do these repairs, its not upto you to prove he didnt! dont give up on this, go see CAB etc. or even solicitor.

hth loops x