ESL Discussion

    Think carefully. What have you complained about  in  a shop or restaurant or cafe recently?

If you were the manager of  a  restaurant ,you would have to deal with  customers' complaints. What  sort of things  do you think customers might  complain  about?

Have you ever  found  it necessary  to complain about  anything  you bought? Explain what happened.

The   following  writing  expresses  an opinion about  this.

WILLIAM

It was  a   cold , unfriendly  day in early December. I  hurried into the sweet shop beside the bus stop and bought a  bar of chocolate. The bus arrived , I climbed  in and sat down . I turned the chocolate over  and read the notice on the back."We want  this chocolate to reach you  in perfect  condition . If  you have any complaint , please  return the chocolate, with the wrapper and the name of the store where you  purchased  it... ,and  I  thought  of William.

I'm not a complainer . If I   go  to a restaurant  where the soup is cold  and the  waiters are rude , I do not call for the manager and complain . I just don't go to that restaurant  again: but William is different. I  called  on him one Sunday morning when he was turning out his desk  and he showed me  a whole  collection  of letters  from unfortunate manufacturers whose  products  he had complained  about.

One day he bought an apple pie . The picture  on the outside  of the packet  showed  a pie , cut in half ,and filled 

with fruit.William was not happy that this  illustration reflected the true state of affairs ."The quality  of your pies  used to be excellent ", he wrote , " but  you have obviously decided to economise by cutting down on the amount  of  fruit you put in your products . On opening the apple pie in question , I found it was approximately half full  of fruit. I am therefore  of the opinion  that your illustration  was totally misleading ......" The  manufacturer sent William a selection of his products , trusting William would find them in satisfaction .

William bought a jar of strawberry  jam. He counted  the strawberries and found  there were eleven , " Your television advertisement state that your jam is packed  with fruit." The firm sent  him  half-a -dozen  different  varieties of their jam and requested his comments.

William has complained that sausages contained too much pepper , that the tobacco in cigarettes was a funny colour , that scones were stale and that tinned salmon had a funny smell . A week ago he bought a beautiful fruit cake , crammed  tight with cherries and nuts and raisins. Unfortunately , there was  a small stone in the first slice he sampled and he broke a front tooth.

The dentist tells him he can't have it done under the National Health so it's  going  to cost him  80  pounds. He has written  to the manufacturer with the stone stuck to the top of the letter with sticky tape.

"Do you think I should have included the broken tooth? he asked me anxiously.

"I'm sure that wasn't necessary , "I told him. " They will believe you."