Unit 4. Declining an Offer
Additional Practice Tests.
Below, you will find additional practice test questions for declining offers. Try to write some letters yourself and try to get them corrected by an IELTS teacher, or you can use the essay marking and correction service.
Focus Question 4. Declining a Job Offer.
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing in response to your letter (dated April 12th) offering me the position of regional sales manager, which I recently applied for with your company.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for being offered this fabulous opportunity. Certainly, I think the remuneration package you have proposed, which includes an attractive basic salary and generous incentives, is highly competitive given the current economic conditions.
However, I must inform you that I regrettably decline your offer because my current employer responded by promoting me to vice-president. Thus, although your company offers excellent financial rewards, my new compensation package exceeds your offer by a considerable margin.
Moreover, I have come to realise that there are a myriad of things I love about my current workplace, such as the collegial teamwork and close-knit relationships that are integral to our commercial success. Indeed, if I accepted your offer, I would miss the positive working environment I currently enjoy.
Therefore, I regret that despite the magnanimous proposal you have made, I must reluctantly decline and remain with my existing employer.
Yours faithfully,
David Watson.
Practice Task 1. Declining a Business Offer from a Friend.
Dear Tracey,
How are you my dear friend? I hope you are well as I am. I'm just writing to respond to the kind offer you made to me to be a part of your exciting new beauty salon business.
To be honest Tracey, I think you've got a brilliant idea. In fact, your idea to convert a camper-van into a mobile beauty salon will be really popular with people who can't get out so easily. Also, this should reduce your overheads, so I'm sure you'll impress and gain a lot of new clients. I'm convinced you'll be a success.
The main reason why I can't accept your offer is because I have just discovered that I'm pregnant. Needless to say, I'll be in no condition to go into a business partnership when I have a new born baby to look after. Also, we'll be putting all our spare cash into buying a bigger house, which is a priority now that our family is growing.
Therefore Tracey, despite my earlier interest to start a business with you, I'm afraid family commitments must come first. I hope you can understand.
Best regards,
Susan
Practice Task 2. Declining a Neighbour's Barbecue Invitation.
Dear Mr. Brown,
My name is Mr. Smith from number 32 (your new next door neighbour), and I am just writing to express my gratitude for the kind invitation to your barbeque next weekend. Indeed, it is lovely to have a new neighbour, so let me formally welcome you and your delightful family to our friendly neighbourhood.
Unfortunately, next weekend is my company's annual convention, which everyone at managerial level is expected to attend, so I am unable to postpone this event to another day. Indeed, it is a very important team-work building occasion that I would not want to miss. Therefore, I must reluctantly decline your kind invitation, though it would be nice to re-arrange another time.
Therefore, could we perhaps organise a barbeque for the weekend after next? I suggest we have one on Saturday 12th August at my house. I'm sure your wife and children will feel very welcome because summer barbeques are a great way to meet new friends, especially for the children.
Finally, please let me know whether the weekend after next is convenient, and once again, I apologise that I cannot make it this weekend.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Alan Smith.
Practice Task 3. Decline an Offer to Buy a Cheap Car.
Dear Paulo,
How are you my dear friend? It was good to hear from you, and let me begin by expressing my sincere gratitude for your kind offer to sell me your Volkswagen Beetle at such a reasonable price. In fact, I was just looking on-line, and I noticed your offer to me is less than half the price a Beetle like yours should sell for.
In fact, I don't think I could accept an offer that is so generous because I would feel that I'm getting an advantage at your expense, which would be like exploiting our friendship unfairly. To be honest, Paulo, although I'm really thankful for the offer, I think it would be better for you to sell the car for the full market value. Apart from that, the contract for my new company states that I am entitled to a company car if I work more than thirty miles away from the premises, which means I will have a free car anyway.
Okay my friend, I just want to reiterate how flattered I am that you thought of me so generously. Let's get together and have coffee soon; it would be great to catch up.
Best regards,
Dennis
Practice Task 4. Declining a Baby-Sitting Job Offer.
Dear Barbara,
I hope you are well as I am. I'm just writing to say thank you for your thoughtfulness in thinking of our Samantha to look after your baby twins, and for such an attractive payment. It is very flattering that you would trust my daughter with your toddlers, little Jesse and Jeanne, who are such beautiful children.
However Barbara, although Samantha would like to accept the offer, I regret that it won't really be possible because she has to go to the orchestra rehearsals on Saturdays. In fact, due to the busy schedule, she doesn't usually get home until later in the evening. I'm so sorry that she can't take advantage of the opportunity, but she's really grateful for the offer.
Despite that, I'd suggest that you get in touch with "First Steps Baby Services", which is a child-minding service that I have used several times in the past. In my experience, as well as being very reasonable 'price-wise' they are also highly professional. You can find them on-line.
Okay Barbara, thanks again for your kind offer, though on behalf of Samantha, I must reluctantly decline.
Best regards,
Carla
Practice Test 1. Letter of Complaint.
Vocabulary · a recalled product: a defective product that is taken off the market ·malfunctions: failures in operation · faulty: defective · apology: an admission of error or discourtesy accompanied by an expression of regret e.g. public apology · annoyance: Being bothered by something or someone e.g. She expressed annoyance at the slow service ·dissatisfaction: a feeling of unhappiness or disapproval, e.g. She expressed her dissatisfaction with the service Letters of Complaint Useful Phrases and Vocabulary · satisfaction: a happy or pleased feeling because of something that you did or something that happened to you ·attitude: the way you think and feel about someone or something · quality: how good or bad something is · to portray: to describe (someone or something) in a particular way ·incompetence: lack of the ability to do something well · to attend to: to give needed help or attention to (someone or something) · severe: very bad, serious, or unpleasant · to compensate: to give money or something else of value to (someone) in return for something ·to demand: to require (something) · hazardous: dangerous · a lawn mower: a machine used for cutting the grass on lawns · assembly: the act of connecting together the parts of something (such as a machine) · to chuckle: to laugh in a quiet way · a welded edge: to join pieces of metal together by heating the edges until they begin to melt and then pressing them together · a coupler: something combined with something else · to misuse: to use (something) incorrectly · hassle: to bother or annoy (someone) constantly or repeatedly
Common Expressions.
Opening a letter of complaint.
Introducing your complaint.
- I am writing this letter to protest about the plan to ...
- I am writing this letter to express my disappointment in relation to the proposal to ...
- I am sorry to have to inform you of the following unfortunate situation: Last week when I visited your ...
- I am writing to express my unhappiness about your decision / plans to ...
- I am writing to make clear / to lodge my displeasure (show my irritation / frustration) at your plans to ...
- I am sorry to have to complain in relation to the following unfortunate situation, which occurred at your ...
- I am writing in connection with an unfortunate experience I had when I visited your store / business etc...
- I am writing this letter to bring to your attention my disapproval of your decision / proposal to ...
- I am writing this letter to complain about an incident that happened on (date) at (time) at (place)
- I am writing this letter to express my dissatisfaction with the poor service I experienced when I ...
- I am writing in connection with ...
Developing your complaint.
- The reasons for my complaint / objections are three-fold: First of all, ... Also, ... In addition, ...
- Unfortunately, I found the standard of professionalism and workmanship to fall well below what I had come to consider to be an acceptable level in regard to ...
- I am very disappointed with the poor standard(s) of service / workmanship / professionalism I encountered when I visited your ...
- Something that I feel particularly aggrieved about is that ...
- Another source of real dissatisfaction is that ...
- This was not what I had expected. In fact, it is quite the opposite;
- Although, according to your staff, I should have got / the product should have / the service should have included, in fact it fell short of this expectation...
- Notwithstanding the fact that I was assured by your sales assistant / employee that ...
- On using your service / product, I was quite surprised to discover that, despite being assured by your company employees that it would work perfectly, when I got it home, in fact the product failed to ...
Asking the recipient to take action:
- I sincerely hope that you will take my complaint seriously
- I trust you will take appropriate action to remedy this situation in the immediate future so that we can put this unfortunate incident / event(s) behind us.
- I am fully confident that we can overcome this unfortunate situation and come to a mutually agreeable resolution. I trust it would not be inconvenient for you to now act to redress this problem by ...
- I would be sincerely grateful if you could ...
- I hope you will give your immediate attention to this matter...
- I fully anticipate that you will take remedial steps to resolve this matter to our mutual satisfaction. I therefore expect you to ...
- In view of these circumstances, I trust you will see that it would be unfair if I were not given some kind of compensation for my loss / inconvenience ... Therefore, it only seems fair that you provide me with ...
- As a valued customer, I fully expect that you will provide me with ...
- In order to satisfactorily address my grievance, I feel that what would be fair (what would suit me best) would be if you were to ...