IELTS General Training Task 1
IELTS Complaint Letter Sample: Band 8 Features
An IELTS complaint letter sample states why you are writing, covers the three bullet points, and keeps a formal or semi-formal tone for the reader named in the prompt.
The notes below paraphrase the public IELTS Writing band descriptors and the General Training Writing format page on ielts.org. The descriptor file itself is marked as updated in May 2023. This page does not reproduce that scale, and it does not award a band. A script has to fit the positive features of a band as a whole.
General Training Task 1 is a letter of at least 150 words, written in about 20 minutes. The public format page says the letter may be personal, semi-formal, or formal, depending on who you write to. A complaint to a company or a manager is formal or semi-formal. A complaint to a friend is personal. The informal and formal letter guide is the longer note on that choice.
What the complaint letter has to do
The prompt gives a situation, a reader, and three bullet points. Those three bullets are the content. A complaint prompt commonly asks you to describe what went wrong, explain how it affected you, and say what you want the reader to do. Use the bullets on the page in front of you. A letter that answers a different complaint has left the task.
The purpose belongs in the first sentences. The reader should know that this is a complaint, what it is about, and when it happened. A booking reference, an order number, or a date makes that purpose specific. “I am writing to complain about the coat I ordered on 20 October, reference CT-4418” names the case. “I am writing about a problem” does not.
The tone has to stay appropriate from the greeting to the sign-off. The public Task Achievement lines for General Training treat a clear purpose and an appropriate tone as part of the task. Band 8 asks for every requirement to be covered appropriately, relevantly, and sufficiently, and for every bullet to be clearly presented and extended. The four criteria sit side by side in the band descriptors guide.
The public minimum is 150 words of connected text. Writing more is not penalised for length. Under 150 words, there may not be enough language evidence for a higher band. Notes and off-topic writing are penalised. The word count guide sets that floor beside the Task 2 minimum of 250. Task 2 contributes twice as much as Task 1 to the Writing score, so a very long letter is a time risk.
A structure that covers the three bullets
The public format page says you do not need to write any addresses. Start with the greeting. Then give the purpose, one paragraph for each bullet, a short closing line, and the sign-off that matches the greeting.
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Greeting | Names the reader. “Dear Sir or Madam” when no name is given. “Dear Ms Patel” when the prompt names a person. |
| Purpose | Says you are complaining, and names the order, booking, visit, or product, with a date or a reference. |
| Bullet 1 | Describes what went wrong, with one or two facts a reader could check. |
| Bullet 2 | Explains the effect on you: time, money, a missed plan, or a room or item you could not use. |
| Bullet 3 | Asks for one clear action: a refund, a replacement, a repair, or a written explanation, and says how to reach you. |
| Close | “I look forward to your reply.” Then “Yours faithfully” after “Dear Sir or Madam”, or “Yours sincerely” after a name. |
Each bullet needs its own sentences and a detail. A date, a size, or a consequence is the extension the band 8 line asks for. “Please sort this out” leaves the request thin.
Formal and semi-formal complaint phrases
Choose one voice and stay in it. A letter to an unnamed company uses full forms: “I am”, “I would”, “I have”. A letter to a named manager can be warmer and still polite. Contractions and a blunt word such as “rubbish” belong in a letter to a friend. Precise word choice is Lexical Resource. The lexical resource guide covers style and collocation. The band 8 line asks for a wide range used fluently and flexibly to convey precise meanings.
| The sentence does this | A formal phrase you can adapt |
|---|---|
| State the purpose | I am writing to complain about… / I am writing to report a problem with… |
| Name the facts | The order was placed on… / The item that arrived was… / The booking confirmation shows… |
| Explain the effect | As a result, I was unable to… / This meant that I had already… / I could not use… |
| Make the request | I would be grateful if you could refund… / Please arrange a collection and confirm the date in writing. |
| Close | I look forward to your reply. Add a time when you can be reached. |
A semi-formal letter to a named manager can open “Dear Ms Patel” and close “Yours sincerely”. “I would appreciate it if you could arrange a repair this week” is still a specific request. “Can you sort this out?” stays with a letter to a friend.
An IELTS complaint letter sample
The letter below was written for this page. It is not a past paper, not an official sample, and not an examiner-scored band. It targets public Band 8 features: each bullet extended, a purpose in the opening, and one formal voice from greeting to sign-off.
Prompt. You ordered a coat from an online shop. It arrived two weeks late, and it was the wrong size and colour. Write a letter to the customer service manager. In your letter, describe what you ordered and what arrived, explain how this has affected you, and say what you would like the company to do.
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to complain about an order placed on your website on 20 October, reference CT-4418. I ordered a navy wool coat in size medium, to be delivered before 3 November. The parcel arrived on 17 November, and the coat inside was black and in size small.
The confirmation email describes a navy coat, size medium. The label on the coat that arrived reads “black, size small”. The sleeves end well above my wrist, so the coat does not fit, and the colour is not the one I paid for. The reference on the parcel matches CT-4418, so this is my order.
I needed the coat for a journey that began on 4 November. By the time the parcel reached me, that journey was over, and I had already bought a replacement in a local shop. I had also paid your full price for an item I cannot wear.
I would be grateful if you could collect the coat and refund the full payment, including the delivery charge. I do not wish to exchange it, because the date I needed it has passed. Please confirm the refund in writing, and tell me which day you will collect it. I can be reached on the telephone number on the order, after 6 p.m. on weekdays.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours faithfully,
Alex Morgan
How the sample meets the four criteria
The comments below map the letter onto the public descriptors, which weight the four criteria equally. They are a reading of those features, not a mark. Only an official IELTS test assigns an examined band.
Task Achievement. The opening names the complaint, the date, and the reference. One paragraph gives the ordered coat and the coat that arrived. The next gives the effect: the journey on 4 November and the replacement already bought. The last asks for a collection, a full refund including the delivery charge, and a day for that collection. The greeting and the sign-off are the formal pair, in full forms, above 150 words. That is the Band 8 pattern it was written to show: the task covered appropriately, and each bullet presented and extended. Band 7 still needs a clear purpose and a consistent tone.
Coherence and Cohesion. The public band 8 line asks for logical order, cohesion managed well, and enough paragraphing. The letter moves from the order, to the parcel, to the effect, to the request.
Lexical Resource. The public band 8 line asks for a wide range used fluently, with precise meanings. Occasional inaccuracies in word choice may occur, and spelling or word-formation errors are rare. “Reference”, “confirmation email”, “delivery charge”, “navy”, and “black” name this case. Repeating “problem” in every sentence is the narrower range the lexical resource guide treats as band 6.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy. The public band 8 line asks for a wide range of structures, with most sentences error-free and only very occasional errors. The sample uses a past perfect (“I had already bought”), a reason clause (“because the date I needed it has passed”), and a relative clause (“the coat that arrived”). The letter was written so those sentences are accurate. A real script is judged as a whole. Band 7 allows a few errors inside good control.
Common mistakes
- Choosing the tone from the word “complaint”. A complaint to a friend is informal. A complaint to the shop is formal. Read the “write a letter to…” line first.
- A purpose that never names the case. Put the order, the date, or the place in the opening paragraph.
- A request left as “Please do something”. Name a refund, a replacement, a repair, or an explanation, plus one practical detail.
- “Dear Sir or Madam” with contractions and a blunt word such as “rubbish”. That mix is the minor tone inconsistency in the band 6 line, and it can become the variable tone in the band 5 line.
- “Dear Sir or Madam” closed with “Yours sincerely”, or a named manager closed with “Yours faithfully”.
- An address block. The public page says you do not need to write any addresses.
- Under 150 words, or notes in place of sentences. Extra facts that leave the three bullets do not repair a missing point.
- A memorised letter that answers a different prompt. Copied writing is the plagiarism case the public pages say is severely penalised.
A check before you stop
- The first sentences name the complaint, with a date, a reference, or a place.
- Each of the three bullets has its own sentences and at least one detail.
- The request says what should happen next, and how the reader can reach you.
- The greeting and the sign-off are the pair for that reader, and the wording stays formal or semi-formal all the way through.
- The letter is at least 150 words of connected text, with no address block.
Check your own complaint letter
Paste the letter with the question. Read the opening for the purpose, mark each bullet for a detail, and read the last paragraph for the action you want.
The IELTS Writing Checker takes Task 1 and Task 2. The methodology page describes the product as a diagnostic and revision tool. Feedback is organised around the four public criteria. A band estimate shows a likely bottleneck. It is not an official IELTS score. Read Task Achievement for the purpose, the three bullets, and the tone.
Paste one General Training complaint letter and the question it answers. Mark the three bullets, then check that the opening states the purpose and the tone matches the reader.
The form runs from 50 words and stops at 400. A full General Training Task 1 letter is at least 150 words. The estimate is a diagnosis, not an official band.
What this page is not claiming
This site is not affiliated with IELTS, the British Council, IDP, or Cambridge English. The band descriptions paraphrase the public Writing descriptors. They are not the official wording, and they are not a result. The letter was written for this page to target Band 8 features. It is not an official sample and not an examiner-scored band. Only an official IELTS test assigns an examined band.