FICTIONAL EXAMPLE. The organisation, documents, figures and events are invented.

Reply to a complaint about a late-payment fee

Organisation settings (fictional)

The brief (fictional)

A fictional customer says a late fee of 35 was unfair because the bank's app was down on the due date. Case notes (S1) show an outage on that date (S2). Team Leader approved a refund. The customer mentions being "between jobs".

DRAFT. Classification: Restricted (contains personal information). Prepared with corp-complaint-reply v1.0.0. Not signed off.

Triage flags (internal)

Possible hardship: the customer says they are between jobs [S1]. Before sending, offer referral to the Financial Care Team.

Reply

Dear [customer name, from the case file],

Thank you for writing to us about the 35 late fee on your account.

We looked at your account notes and our system records for the due date.

Our app was unavailable for most of that day [S2]. You told us you tried to pay that day, and we have no record that says otherwise [S1].

We will refund the 35 fee. You will see it in your account within five business days [S1, approved by Team Leader].

If things are tight at the moment, our Financial Care Team can talk through options with you. This is your choice and does not affect this decision.

If you are not satisfied, you can ask the Customer Advocate at Tamarind Bay Bank to review this.

You can reply to this letter or contact the Complaints Team.

Cover note (internal)

Sources: S1 Case notes. S2 Outage record.
Deadline: 30 days from receipt, per Complaints Procedure v5. Receipt date not supplied [UNVERIFIED].
The reply does not admit fault. It reports the outage and the refund, as approved. An apology has not been approved.
Sign-off. Team Leader: ____ Date: ____