Complaint About Invalid Train Tickets and Unhelpful Staff

You recently bought some train tickets for a journey a week in advance. When you went to the station to catch the train, you were told you could not use the tickets and the staff were very unhelpful to you.

Write a letter to the train company. In your letter:

Describe the problem you had with the tickets

Say why you were unhappy with the staff

Suggest what action the train company should take

From essays on this question

Letter points: Complaint About Invalid Train Tickets and Unhelpful Staff

WhyThis is aFormal letter — it asks you to cover every bullet point in a formal tone.

SoWe group the points under each bullet point of the task.

Describe the problem you had with the tickets

1 point

Say why you were unhappy with the staff

3 points

Suggest what action the train company should take

3 points

Same question · Different responses

Sample responses and feedback

Response 01

Must fixSuggested

Answer · 237 words · 8 paragraphs · 8 comments

Score details

Response 01
Estimated band7.5/ 9

Overall assessment

The letter's strongest aspect is its full, well-organized coverage of all three bullet points in an appropriately formal tone with clear detail. The main limitation is language that is sometimes formulaic and slightly overwrought, which keeps it below fully natural, flexible expression.

TA

Task Achievement

The letter directly and fully addresses all three bullet points with specific invented detail such as dates, route, and number of tickets, and maintains a consistently formal register suited to a company complaint.

8.0
CC

Coherence and Cohesion

Ideas are logically sequenced with clear paragraphing and cohesive devices like 'In relation to' and 'Given this inconvenience', though some linking is slightly mechanical or formulaic.

7.5
LR

Lexical Resource

Vocabulary is flexible and mostly precise for the communicative task, with phrases like 'dismissive behaviour' and 'unusable tickets', but some wording is somewhat overwrought or conventional.

7.0
GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

A wide range of structures is used with generally good control, including relative and conditional clauses, with only minor errors or awkward phrasings that do not impede meaning.

7.0

What to work on next

Vary sentence structures and vocabulary beyond rehearsed complaint-letter phrases so the writing sounds more natural and precise.

From essays on this question

Useful vocabulary: Complaint About Invalid Train Tickets and Unhelpful Staff

From essays on this question

Sentence patterns: Complaint About Invalid Train Tickets and Unhelpful Staff

Practise this question

Write your response

Task 1 General question loaded.
Part 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Write at least 150 words.

Words: 020:00 starts on first word