Example Complaint Letter:
Digital Multimeter Problems—Annotations

Heading. The heading portion of a business letter includes the writer's address and date. For traditional business letters like this one, you don't normally include your name in the heading.

Inside address. The inside address provides the full name, title, and address of the recipient of the letter. If you do not have a specific name, you can department name or a position title—as is done in this letter.

Salutation. In this portion of the letter, use the same name as you used in the inside address. If you lack a specific name, you can address the letter to a likely title within the organization as is done here. Be sure and punctuate the salutation with a colon, not a comma (which is for informal, friendly, nonbusiness letters).

Introduction. In this complaint letter, the writer opens with a statement as to the subject of his letter and then moves directly on to a statement as to the compensation he expects. The conventional wisdom is that making this direct statement so early in the letter may turn off some readers and cause them not to read the rest of the letter or read it with a very antagonistic attitude. Perhaps because the situation here is rather straightforward, the writer believes he can state the compensation he desires right away.

Background. The second and third paragraphs provide background on the problem. Notice that this part of the letter is written in a straightforward, objective manner. Neither the request for compensation or its justification are stated here. This approach is often a good one: you keep the functions and contents of a letter (for that matter, any document) in separate paragraphs or sections.

Justification. Notice that there is no direct discussion as to why this request is warranted. The writer indicates his experience with this product, or ones like it, earlier in the letter—it can't be that he doesn't know how to operate the multimeter. He describes the state of the packaging upon receipt—everything looked okay so it can't be that it was damaged in transit. But does the lack of direct justification weaken the overall effectiveness of this letter?

Closing. The writer provides the barest minimum of a closing here, sketchily mentioning the importance of this equipment in his line of work. Is this too curt, too brusque, too dismissive?

Enclosures. To document his request, this writer includes everything he received in the original shipment—even down to the packing peanuts it seems!