Answering the letter of complaint,
accepting or rejecting it.
Useful Expressions
Acknowledging receipt of a complaint letter
Thank you for your letter of … regarding / concerning / in connection with …
I refer to your letter of … about / relating to …
Apology for the error or fault
We must apologise for …
We sincerely apologise for …
Please accept our apologies for …
I would like to apologise for the error made by our company in (verb+ing)
Accepting the Complaint
We agree that the usual high standards of our products / services were not met in
this instance.
A short explanation of the fault
Introductory phrase
o As a result of our investigation, we found that... (Not: After our
investigation...)
Causes
o The error was caused by … / was due to …
o Apparently, the problem was the result of … / resulted from …
o The cause of / reason for the mistake was …
Effects
o As a result …
o This led to …
o Consequently …
Solutions
o We have modified / changed our ...
o We have implemented a system to...
o To prevent re-occurrences we have set up a verification procedure.
Assurances
o We assure you that this will not happen again.
Investigation to be made
We are currently investigating the cause of ...
We will investigate the cause of...