Refusing an order

1) In this instance we are unable to accept your order, as we cannot match your pattern.

2) Much as we should like to do business with you, we fear we cannot turn out brushes of reasonable quality at the price you ask.

3) Supplies of raw materials are becoming difficult to obtain and we have no alternative but to decline your order.

4) As we would not be able to promise delivery before next spring, we feel we must return your order, with our apologies and thanks.

5) We have a waiting list of several hundred for these machines and can give no guarantee of delivery this year.

6) Production difficulties force us to decline further orders for this model for the time being.

7) The political situation has caused supplies of beef to " dry up" entirely, and we are forced to discontinue the manufacture of these goods.

8) There is no demand for the material of the type you submit as a sample, and we shall not manufacture further supplies.

9) Any alteration in design would mean re-setting our machines, and the cost of this would be prohibitive unless you could place an order for some 5, 000.

10) It would be impossible for us to supply this small quantity in wrappers of varying design and colour, without considerably raising the prices.

11) While thanking you for your order, we have to explain that we supply only to authorised dealers in each town, and at present we are not considering increasing the number of dealers in your area.

Exercises

Exercise 1, Translate from English into Russian.

1) Thank you for your reply of 14 May regarding the cassettes we wrote to you about. Enclosed you will find our official order...

2) Your letter of 12 October convinced me to place at least a trial order for the " Letherine" material you spoke about.

3) Once we have received your advice, we will send a banker's draft (банковская тратта) to...

4) Although the rather low trade discount of 15% disappointed us, we will place an order and hope that this allowance can be reviewed at some time in the near future.

5) Delivery before February is a firm condition of this order, and we reserve the right to refuse goods delivered after this time.

6) We advise delivery by road to avoid constant handling of this fragile consignment (товар; партия товара).

7) The mashines must be well greased with all movable parts secured before being loaded into crates, which must be marked.

8) Your order No 6712/1 is now being processed and should be ready for dispatch by next week.

9) We are pleased to advise you that the watches you ordered — No 8815/24 — were put on flight В A 165 leaving Zurich 11.00, 9 August arriving Manchester 13.00. Please find enclosed air waybill DC 15161/3 and copies of invoice All 3/3.

10) If the goods sell as well as we hope, we shall send further
orders in the near future.

Exercise 2. Translate from English into Russian

1) Dear Sirs:

We have pleasure in informing you that your order no. 844772 has been completed and is awaiting collection. The consignment consists of 5 crates, each weighting 255 kg.

Transport, insurance and freight are being arranged by our forwarding agents, AG of Antwerp. We can vouch for their expertise and efficiency.

As soon as we receive details of forwarding charges from our agents, we will send you our invoice and the shipping documents. The amount of the invoice will be charged to your account, and in future we will draw on you quarterly, as previously agreed.

We assure you that your orders will be given prompt attention, and look forward to hearing from you again.

Yours faithfully,

2) Dear Sirs,

It was pleasure to receive your order for 300 Model С 'Reflex' cameras and to hear of your success in disposing of the last consignment. As we advised you at the time of your last purchase, this type of camera, with its large viewfinder, has become a best-selling model, and you cannot go wrong in stocking it.

While sales throughout the world have been good, there has been a persistent demand for a lens of larger aperture than the f.3, which was fitted as standard on the Model С last year. On careful examination of this demand we came to the conclusion that the average camera-user of today wants an instrument with which he can do serious picture-making. We have therefore produced a new version of our famous camera - the model D, which is fitted with an f4.5 lens.

Model '0' has replaced 'C, and at a price of DM 80 net to the trade, represents the finest value on the market for cameras of this type. We think you will agree that the difference in price, DM 10, betv.een this and the old model is very small for the amazing difference in performance which is now possible. It has received an enthusiastic welcome heie already.

Our new publicity campaign is due to begin in a few weeks and the '0' Reflex will be adevertised extensively in national newspapers in your country as well as in technical magazines. Your stock will reach you in good time for the commencement of our campaign, so we should be glad if you would confirm the order for 300 of Model 'Din place of the discontinued Model 'C.

We shall be happy to grant you an extra 5% discount for 300, and can promise you immediate dispatch. Once again we say you cannot go wrong with a Reflex. We are always at your service.

Yours faithfully

Exercise 3. Translate from Russian into English. Уважаемые господа!

Мы подтверждаем получение Вашего письма от... (дата) и просим Вас принять к выполнению заказ на 3 насосные маши­ны. Мы согласны с назначенными Вами ценами.

Доставка должна быть осуществлена по вышеуказанному адресу к... (дата). Поскольку Вы ничего не упомянули о гаран­тийном сроке, который обычно предоставляется при поставке машин, мы хотим указать, что просим дать двухгодичный срок гарантии, в течение которого Вы обязаны выполнять любые ремонтные работы бесплатно.

Мы будем рады, если Вы известите нас о получении наше­го заказа и Вашем мнении о наших условиях.

С уважением,

Exercise 4. Write a letter to a foreign manufacturer of some article you are familiar with Enclose an order and state your requirements regarding quantity, quality, appearance and delivery.

Unit 6

CLAIMS

Lesson 1

Text

In ideal business conditions everything should be done carefully — details of offers and orders checked, manufacture of the goods carried out properly, packing and marking verified.

However in spite of all possible care and attention that is given to contracts letters of complaint happen to arrive rather frequently because of various infringements.

There are various reasons for complaints. The following kinds of claims are often made by Buyers:

1) claims arising from the delivery of wrong goods, damaged goods or substandard goods;

2) claims connected with delays of one kind or another;

3) claims owing to goods missing from delivery (i.e. short­shipment or short-delivery);

4) claims that concern errors in carrying out the order. These may be caused by mis-typing of figures, mis-reading of numbers, mis-direction of goods, wrong goods, wrong packing and so on.

Sellers most frequently make claims on Buyers because of default of payment.

As a rule a customer will not complain unless he has a good reason. If the customer's complaint is well-grounded, the settlement is comparatively easy: the error will be admitted and the responsible party will meet the claim fully or partly. In other words, the dissatisfied party will get full or partial compensation for the losses they suffered. Thus the matter is settled amicably.

Much more difficult is the case where the customer's complaint is not justified. It would be wrong policy to reject the claim off­hand.

The responsible parеy must carefully explain why the claim is de­clined and try to persuade the dissatisfied party to withdraw the claim.

Exercises

Exercise 1. Translate the text from English into Russian. Exercise 2. Translate from Russian into English.

1) Покупатели часто предъявляют претензии продавцам по поводу поставки товаров, не предусмотренных контрактом, поврежденных и недоброкачественных товаров.

2) Претензии могут быть вызваны недопоставкой товаров.

3) Во избежание претензий со стороны покупателя следует проверить упаковку и маркировку товаров.

4) Продавцы могут предъявлять претензии покупателям по поводу задержки платежа.

5) Если претензия обоснована, ответчик должен полностью или частично компенсировать убытки.

6) Сторона может отклонить претензию, если считает, что она необоснована.

7) Если сторонам не удалось прийти к соглашению, дело может быть передано на рассмотрение Внешнеторговой арбит­ражной комиссии при Торгово-промышленной палате.

8) Решение Арбитражной комиссии окончательно и обяза­тельно для обеих сторон.

mm

То have a complaint is annoying, but to complain without good reason will also annoy your correspondent. If you complain, make sure you get your facts right. And if you have to answer an unjustified complaint, be polite and restrained, and remember that we can all make mistakes.

Lesson 2.

_____ Claims connected with delay in delivery _______

Expressions used in connection with delay in delivery:

1) We shall be glad to know when we may expect delivery of the goods as they are most urgently wanted.

2) The delivery of the goods was to have taken place last month, and we have been caused serious inconvenience through the delay.

3) When placing this order with you we particularly stipulated for delivery within eight months.

4) Your delay in delivering the goods against Order No 1225 caused us considerable inconvenience.

5) We are surprised that you have not yet delivered the goods against Order No 1225.

6) We must insist on your unconditional guarantee that the goods will be delivered at the end of September.

7) We refuse to accept the goods on the ground of late delivery.

1) We are very sorry that you have to complain of delay in delivery of the goods.

2) We ask you to accept our apologies for the delay and the inconvenience you have been caused.

3) We apologize for the delay and trust that you have not been caused any serious inconvenience.

4) The delay in delivery occurred through no fault of ours.

5) The great pressure of orders for these goods has made it impossible for us to deliver the goods in August.

Exercises

Exercise 1. Translate the letter from English into Russian.

July 15, 19...

Black & Co., London

Dear Sirs,

Re: Order No 235

Further to our letter dated June 30, 19... we are writing to you to express our deep concern about the delay in delivery of consignment under the above Order.

You will remember that when we sent you our Order we pointed out that timely delivery was most essential.

We are taking this opportunity to remind you that lately we have had numerous complaints from our clients who find fault with the packing of your goods.

We are sure that you are well aware of our previous claims. Therefore we expect you to take urgent steps to speed up the delivery of the above consignment and to give instructions to your packing department to take more care of inside packing of the goods.

Yours sincerely

Exercise 2. Translate the sentences into Russian.

1) When we sent you our order we pointed out that early delivery of the goods was absolutely necessary.

2) We urged on you the importance of the time factor.

3) The delivery time was clearly stated on our order and your acceptance.

4) In your acknowledgement of our order you stated that the consignment would be dispatched within two weeks and we are therefore very surprised that we have had no advice of dispatch (уведомление об отправке груза) yet.

5) We are at a loss to understand why we have not heard from you.

6) We are still without your advice of dispatch of the cameras; we are receiving urgent requests from customers and you will understand that this delay places us in an awkward position.

7) You will remember that it was agreed the goods would be shipped in time to arrive here by the end of month.

8) Our stocks may become too low for us to be able to cope with the Christmas trade.

9) We must ask you to dispatch the consignment immediately, if you have not already done so, and in any case please inform us by cable what the position is.

10) We hope to hear from you by return that the consignment is
on its way.

Exercise J. Translate the following from English into Russian.

1) Please refer to our Order No 57/12 for machine-tools which you advise would be delivered by October 27.

Unless this order arrives by November 5, we shall have to cancel, as we cannot wait any longer for delivery.

We are sure you understand our position and will take ail possible steps to ensure that cancellation will not be necessary.

2) We have for acknowledgement your letter of October 31 regarding the late delivery of your Order No 57/12.

This consignment has been held up because of the earthquake; however, we assure you that we are making every effort to get your machine-tools to you and anticipate that delivery should be effected by November 5.

Please accept our apologies for this delay.

3) When we made our order for machine-tools (Order No 43/14) three months ago we did so on the understanding that delivery would be by May 14.

We have not received the machine-tools yet and would appreciate your immediate advice as to when we may expect them.

Exercise 4. Translate the letter into Russian, Dear Sirs: