Great Letters That Work Hunt

raeble

I don't suppose anyone can recommend a letter for complaining about the quality of clothing? I bought a skirt a few weeks back and wore it once to an interview and put it away. The next time I wore it to an interview it split in two places - about 4 - 6 inches each split. I was on my way to the interview when it was pointed out to me twice, so I had not chance to buy another one. I just had to get some thick black tights. I've got a refund now but I'm thinking I ought to complain officially about the quality because it is/was a suit skirt and I was going to an interview. If they noticed it can't have looked good if they saw it and I didn't want to point it out if they hadn't seen it.

scomsw

office-humour.co.uk

Letter from Inland Revenue

Dear Mr Addison,
I am writing to you to express our thanks for your more than prompt reply to our latest communication, and also to answer some of the points you raise. I will address them, as ever, in order. Firstly, I must take issue with your description of our last as a "begging letter". It might perhaps more properly be referred to as a "tax demand". This is how we, at the Inland Revenue have always, for reasons of accuracy; traditionally referred to such documents.

Secondly, your frustration at our adding to the "endless stream of crapulent whining and panhandling vomited daily through the letterbox on to the doormat" has been noted. However, whilst I have naturally not seen the other letters to which you refer I would cautiously suggest that their being from "pauper councils, Lombardy pirate banking houses and pissant gas-mongerers" might indicate that your decision to "file them next to the toilet in case of emergencies" is at best a little ill-advised. In common with my own organisation, it is unlikely that the senders of these letters do see you as a "lackwit bumpkin” or, come to that, a "sodding charity". More likely they see you as a citizen of Great Britain, with a responsibility to contribute to the upkeep of the nation as a whole.

Which brings me to my next point. Whilst there may be some spirit of truth in your assertion that the taxes you pay "go to shore up the canker-blighted, toppling folly that is the Public Services", a moment's rudimentary calculation ought to disabuse you of the notion that the government in any way expects you to "stump up for the whole damned party" yourself. The estimates you provide for the Chancellor's disbursement of the funds levied by taxation, whilst colourful, are, in fairness, a little off the mark. Less than you seem to imagine is spent on "junkets for Bunterish lickspittles" and "dancing !!!!!s" whilst far more than you have accounted for is allocated to, for example, "that box-ticking façade of a university system."

A couple of technical points arising from direct queries:
1. The reason we don't simply write "Muggins" on the envelope has to do with the vagaries of the postal system;
2. You can rest assured that "sucking the very marrows of those with nothing else to give" has never been considered as a practice because even if the Personal Allowance didn't render it irrelevant, the sheer medicallogistics involved would make it financially unviable.

I trust this has helped. In the meantime, whilst I would not in any way wish to influence your decision one way or the other, I ought to point out that even if you did choose to "give the whole foul jamboree up and go and live in India" you would still owe us the money.

Please forward it by Friday.

Yours Sincerely,
H J Lee
Customer Relations

BWZN93

Ok, my partner has had 'issues' with the council over council tax, and thought it had been sorted out about two months ago - until this landed on the doormat last week.

Id like to point out that I reproduce it completely and fully, and all spacings, spellings, are copied EXACTLY from the letter, with the exception of the usual personal stuff starred out, and then I'll give you a copy of my reply - which hasnt been replied to yet, unsuprisingly.

"Ms J I ****
12 ******
Bath
*****

Dear Mr ****

Thank you for your letter received by this ofiice and please accept my apologies for the delay in
my
reply.

According to our records we have received one student certificate from Mr C *****. We Will require certificates for all other students occupying the property.

Once this information is recieves we will apply an exemption to your account.

For more information please call our 24 hour help and advice line **** **** ***.
Yours sincereley,

(no signature either)

Ms D***** G*****"


Now, My initials are JL, not JI, and im certainly not multi-sexed, there was no date on the letter, and quite frankly I was appalled at the spelling and layout of this - especially considering it came from the council. I'd also pointed out several times that I was the representative of the tenants, not a tenant, and therefore the account is not 'mine'. My Response, which I sent to the departmental manager, is as follows:

"
Dear Mr *****

Our ref: ******
Your ref: *******

RE: Council Tax

I am writing to you as the representative of the tenants of 12 ******, Bath, *******, and would like to put an end to the continual round of letters being received for the payment of Council Tax, in relation to students with exemption certificates. Hopefully, by sending this letter to yourself, this matter will be sorted out with the minimum of fuss and delay.

In the past year, the tenants received no notification that any Council Tax was due for the year 2004/2005, until a court summons was received for non-payment, being the point at which I stepped in on their behalf. Firstly, I called the department for advice, and secondly, posted copies of the student certificates for all of the tenants that currently lived in the Building. In that letter, I also stated that two of the tenants, Ms ******, and Ms ******, had both moved out prior to receiving the summons, their whereabouts unknown. The certificates were returned the tenants as requested, and felt that this was the end to the matter.

As it turns out, the tenants received a letter for council tax for the dates 2005/2006, at which I sent a reply stating that, firstly, the tenants are in the building for one year, from August 2004, to June 2005 (i.e. the current academic year) and the certificates cover the period which they are in the property, and are therefore not liable for any other sum of money. I secondly pointed out that, as the academic year for 2005/2006 does not start until later on in the year, they cannot be expected to furnish these certificates yet, and, they will not be living in the property, therefore the certificates will apply to their new properties, NOT to 12 ********.

Yesterday, I received a letter on behalf of the tenants, at the above property, from a Ms D***** G*****. Upon first reading, I actually thought that a mistake had been made, or that the letter was some kind of strange joke. As we have stated before, whilst Mr ****** took his certificate in to the Council offices, ALL certificates for the remaining tenants of property were posted, and returned to us. As the tenants have now moved out, there is no possibility of getting the certificates from the tenants again, most of them being abroad at present. Again, your department has already received them, and if adequate copies were not taken, or lost in the department, it is simply through no fault of the tenants, having done as requested and now moved on.

It seems that your department is incapable of using their logic in this matter, as to anyone else it would seem obvious that when the student tenant moves, they are no longer liable for any Council Tax, and if they have furnished their student status certificates, again, they are covered for the academic year, up to the end of June. Furthermore, it would follow that next year’s tenants are liable for Council Tax from August, unless they furnish their exemption certificates.

Attached is a copy of the letter I received from Ms D**** G*****, undated, which has formed the basis of my assumption that logic is seriously lacking in your staff of your department. I have highlighted the errors I found, so please, in future, ensure that when your staff are sending out letters with regards to fiscal matters, and of official Council business, they do not damage the already tarnished reputation of civil servants any further. In case I receive further letters from your department with regards to the matter of council tax, I will be keeping the original in a place of safety, as evidence of the lack of care shown by your staff in their work.

Finally, If you are having trouble in locating suitable staff for your departments, then please do not hesitate to contact me as I am in the process of looking for gainful employment since completing my degree at ***** University, and would be happy to work in an environment with ‘challenging’ staff that need a dedicated and hard working leader to guide and advise in such matters.

Yours sincerely



Miss J L ****
Representative for the tenants at 12 ******. "



Do you think ill get a discount voucher for that!!!??? Or maybe even a job - now that would be interesting....

Jo xx

musey

*snipped*

broin wrote:

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.

If there was no signed inventory then the landlord cannot prove what condition the property was in when they let it to you, consequently they cannot deduct anything for repairs, after all how can they prove you made the repairs necessary.

If I were you I would not discuss this on the phone, conduct it all in writing. You will find copies of letters invaluable if it gets to court. I would write to the landlord request full return of the bond and give a deadline (I would give 7 days), at this point I would hint that you will pursue it through the court should it be necessary (you must be prepared to do this). Should the bond not be returned which I suspect it won't then I would go to https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp (it's pretty easy to use) and create county court papers, print these off (don't submit them yet). Send the papers to the landlord with a letter giving 7 days to return the bond in full exlaining that the papers will be submitted if the bond is not returned. This usually does the trick however if it doesn't stick to your guns and submit the court papers and take it from there.

The following sites will provide useful information on the subject of landlord/tenant law and rights.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk
The forums are particularly helpful, try doing a search first as this is quite a common question and you will find answers relating to it already posted.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/index.cfm

Your local council will undoubtabley have a "Housing Aid" dept and should be able to advise you on your rights.

broin wrote:

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.

Many landlords (unfortunately) are unaware/do not understand or simply don't care about the legalities of witholding bonds (hence the new deposit scheme the Gov intends to intoduce as part of the new Housing Act). In order to deduct money from a bond he must show a detailed breakdown of what he believes needs doing and also receipts for having it done. However without an inventory to support him (preferabley with pictures <- thats what I use) in showing the pre-tenancy condition he really hasn't got a leg to stand on.

Best of luck with this.

beckyjong

Hi there, i was wondering if anyone had ever complained to nationalexpress.com the bus company? i wrote in a complaint via their website a few weeks ago but never got a reply. i want to write a letter complaining about yet another issue but i have no idea to what address i could post it too and stuff. any one has a clue?
plus i've never really written a complaint before so i was wondering if i could push my luck and see what hints i could get ...
my issue is that ..
a week ago i was sitting in the bus going from london to coventry. pulling out of london, my bus driver sees some unknown foreign luggage scattered on the side of the street, so he pulls over and picks it up and puts it into our coach. alot of the passengers were getting quite worried because for weeks we've always been told to leave suspicious luggage behind and here he was picking up suspiscious luggage. so for a good hour, everyone was very tense and scared fearing the worst that it was a bomb or something, luckily though, another coach eventually calls our driver saying it had fallen from their coach. we end up making a big detour to wait at some other coach station to let the other guy come and pick it up from us. this whole journey caused us an hour extra of our journey plus that hour where everyone's really scared and tense wondering if we're some suckers for a terrorist attack or not ...

does anyone think this is any cause to complain .... ? or should i just leave it be?
plus... i don't even know how to ask for compensation or even if i should be asking for any conpensation or anything ..

any help?
thanks alot

newbie complainer,

joanne

nemo183

Well, it's a personal thing. Do you think it's important? Do you have the time?

If yes, send a short, recorded delivery letter to the company (the MD, listed on their website), and rather than complain, just say why it upset you.

The circumstances you outline would worry me.

The purpose, as I see it, of making a compliant, is to get a personal result. A result for the common good is a likely by-product.

So just say how much it worried you, how you think what they did was wrong, but most important, suggest a way they can put it right.

In your case, if you worried all your journey, suggest a free ticket next time. Worst they can say is no- chances are they will give you one.

In your letter, don't get angry, get concerned and dissappointed.

matthewtemplar

Nestle Consumer Services
PO Box No.203
York
YO91 1XY


Dear Sirs,

The pleasure that your products bring to me are not to be underestimated. With this in mind, imagine if you will, a quiet, sunny Friday afternoon after a hectic week of work.

After making myself a delicious hot cup of Nescafe Gold Blend coffee, I peel the deep red packaging from my pack of 16 Kit Kats. The anticipation of biting into two crisp wafer fingers, covered with milk chocolate is almost too much to bear.

I rip away the individual outer packaging and lay bare the shiny inner, running my finger slowly down it’s crevice and snapping it into two neat fingers. I put one of the chocolate and wafer fingers to my mouth, catching for a moment it’s wonderful cocoa aroma, then I place the tip between my teeth and nibble at the end, gently at first, teasing away the chocolate coating to reveal it’s crispy wafer within.

I nibble and nibble, becoming more and more frustrated now. But it is no good, however hard I nibble, this Kit Kat finger is not going to give me it’s crispy interior. Then it became clear, “what treachery is this?” I cried.

This Kit Kat was an impostor, it looked the same as any other Kit Kat but in this case, looks were only chocolate deep.

I enclose the surviving finger of this pretender (purchased as part of a 16 pack from Tesco in XXXXXXX this very week) in the hope that it will aid you in the search for others of it’s type and eradication of them all. Only when I know that this has been done will I be able to bite into another Kit Kat with the same joy that I once foolishly took for granted.


Regards

nicoliyah

Just wanted to say a big THANKYOU!
Am a new to this site and to these boards. Used your letter with a few tweaks so it wasn't quite so cheecky and got a result, nice one! Ta very much:j

WelshConsumer wrote:

How about this to remove the penalty fees on your bank account for going overdrawn.

To the Manager XYZ Bank.
Dear Sir, You have recently charged me £XXX pounds for becoming overdrawn. It is my personal belief that such a charge represents a penalty and does not represent a true pre-estimate of loss which any charges levied under a contract should be. I do not believe the penalty charges you have levied represent the cost to yourselves of the overdraft. I would therefore be grateful if you would review the account and remove the unfair penalty charge from it.

I trust you will agree with my analysis and that the charge will be removed. In the event that you disagree, I would however be extremely grateful if you would send me a copy of your complaints procedures so that I may pursue this further.
========================
The bank will instantly cave in as a "goodwill gesture". They will never challenge it in the small claims court.

There is various case law that suggests that charges need to represent a genuine pre-esimate of loss on the part of a party.

loopy_lass

breifly, went on holiday, got there ok, went in to appartment, which smelt strongly of wet paint & damp... went off for a shower, stood on 2 5p sizes peices of glass in bath, found other shards of glass on bathroom floor (neatly swept into corner) also found someone elses shower gel in shower....

Went off to bed, grumbling n whining, pulled up the covers, to find they were damp and whiffy... asked for new covers at reception the next day (forgot about the glass incident) got new covers.... whooooo hoooo.... OH.... er they were ripped.. grumbled a bit more n went off to bed after hectic day.

having breakfast & notices dining chair broken, so didnt use it as only 3 of us... went off for the day, remembered the glass... went to find rep.... who wasnt in till the next day.... we had day trip planned, so decided to catch them the time after.... turned up, no rep.... Mmmmmmm grumble grumble...

walking back to appartment, was HARRASSED by time s h i t e i mean share person, the only way they would clear off is when we threatened to call the cops....

had the neighbours from hell first part of week, now who wants to explain "noises" in the night to a 13 yr old..... NOT ME!!!

tried to telephone reception at 4 am to complain, phone didnt work, went over there in the morning, and asked them to phone the rep to come up especially for us... they did, he did we filled in complain form, came home, wrote stinking letter and ........ NOTHING..... had a couple of were sorry letters, but no offer of comp.....

so do we take it further or leave it?
is it me? or should we kick up a fuss?

loops

flossy_splodge

This is good news, that there is a way to get satisfaction from the bamking industry. Wouls like to see your letter to see if it will help with a problem I have with the Halifax (HBOS) Many thanks