Complaint letter, Thistle and Crumb Cafe to Northgate Commercial Refrigeration
Complaint letter to a supplier with the defect, the evidence and the remedy
A complaint letter that works reads like a brief, not a vent. This one page example from a cafe puts five dates in a table, describes the fault as temperature readings against the supplier's own specification, lists three attachments, asks for exactly one remedy, and gives ten days for a written reply.
The document, page by page
Every page as it renders and as it prints, with nothing summarised. Read the wording before you reuse it.
Section by section
What each section is for, so you can keep the ones you need and drop the rest.
- Letterhead
- The cafe's underline letterhead with its address, email and phone.
- Date and addressee
- 16 April 2027, the supplier's address and the service manager by name.
- Subject
- The faulty fridge, the order number and the delivery date.
- The problem in three lines
- The fault, three failed service visits, and the replacement being asked for.
- The dates
- Five rows from the order and payment through to the third service visit.
- The defect
- Logger readings against the specification sheet, with the peak temperature and the ambient.
- Attachments
- Three numbered items: invoice and specification, logs and service reports, and costs.
- The remedy
- One request, installed at the supplier's cost, with a refund fallback.
- Deadline and sign off
- A written reply by 26 April, what happens otherwise, and the owner's name.
How to adapt this document
For a service failure rather than a faulty product, replace the date table with the service levels promised against what was delivered, taken from the contract, because a service complaint stands or falls on the standard that was agreed rather than on a measurement. For a recurring problem across many deliveries, add a frequency line such as eleven of the last forty orders and attach the list, since one late delivery is an incident and eleven is a pattern the supplier has to answer. For a complaint where you want to keep the relationship, keep everything and change the last paragraph: ask for a call within ten days rather than a written reply, and say what a good outcome looks like.
What makes this document work
Five dates, so nobody reconstructs the history
Ordered 17 February and paid in full, delivered 3 March, first fault reported 11 March at 9.4 degrees, service visits on 19 and 31 March, and a third visit on 13 April that found no fault. A supplier's service desk can check every line against its own records in two minutes.
The defect is a measurement, not an adjective
The logger reads every 15 minutes and records the cabinet above 5 degrees for part of every day since 11 March, peaking at 11.2 degrees on 28 March, against a specification of 2 to 4 degrees at an ambient of 25 with the kitchen never above 24. That closes the it must be your kitchen answer.
One remedy is asked for, with one fallback
Replace the cabinet with a new unit of the same model, installed at the supplier's cost, and credit the $540 of hire. If a replacement is not possible, a refund of $6,340 and removal. Asking for three things at once invites a negotiation about which one you will drop.
Questions people ask
What should a complaint letter to a supplier include?
The order details, a dated history, the defect described in measurable terms, the evidence you hold, one remedy and a deadline. This letter does all six in one page. Anything about how disappointed you are can be cut, because it is the only part of the letter a supplier can safely ignore.
Do business purchases have consumer guarantees in Australia?
Often yes. Goods and services bought for business use are covered by the consumer guarantees where the purchase costs less than $100,000 including GST and is not bought for resale or to be used up in production. A $6,340 display fridge sits well inside that, which is why the letter can ask for a replacement.
How long should you give a supplier to respond?
Long enough to be reasonable and short enough to be a deadline. Ten days from the date of the letter is used here, and the letter says what happens next: the matter goes further and this letter and its attachments will be relied on. A complaint with no date attached sits in a queue.
What evidence should you attach to a complaint letter?
Whatever a stranger would need to check the claim. Here it is the invoice, the delivery docket and the specification sheet, the temperature log with the three signed service reports, and the write off and hire costs. Attach copies, keep the originals, and number the attachments so the letter can point at them.
Should you claim consequential losses in a first complaint letter?
Name them, but you do not have to claim them all. This letter sets out $640 of discarded stock and $540 of hire, then asks only for the hire to be credited. Showing the full cost while asking for less makes the request look modest and leaves room if the supplier does not move.
Who should a complaint letter be addressed to?
A named person with authority to fix it, here the service manager. If three service visits have failed, the service desk is not the right audience for the fourth request. Copy the account manager if there is one, and keep the tone the same as a letter you would be content to have read out later.
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