Shopping, Orders and Returns
Learn 20 A2 English words for online shopping and returns - delivery, parcel, refund, faulty, guarantee - with a story and a quiz.
Almost everything you buy now arrives in a box, and when it goes wrong you have to explain the problem in writing to somebody who is not in your country. This lesson gives you the exact words for that: what to call the fault, what to ask for, and the difference between a refund, an exchange and a guarantee. Learn the 20 words, then read about the chair I ordered in April and finally sat on in July.
20 words to learn
The 20 words
/ˈɔːdə(r)/
Something you have asked a company to send you. Also a verb.
My order was three weeks late.
/dɪˈlɪvəri/
The act of bringing goods to your address.
Delivery takes three to five days.
/ˈpɑːsl/
A package sent by post. Americans say package.
The parcel was left with my neighbour.
/træk/
To follow where your parcel is on its journey.
You can track it with the number in the email.
/dɪˈlɪvəri tʃɑːdʒ/
What you pay for the parcel to be brought to you.
There is no delivery charge if you spend over fifty.
/aʊt əv ˈstɒk/
The shop does not have it at the moment.
Both colours were out of stock.
/ˈriːfʌnd/
Your money back. Ask for a refund.
They gave me a full refund in the end.
/ɪksˈtʃeɪndʒ/
To swap what you bought for a different one.
Can I exchange it for the larger size?
/ˈfɔːlti/
Not working properly because something is wrong with it.
The switch was faulty from the first day.
/ˈdæmɪdʒd/
Broken or marked, usually during delivery.
One leg arrived damaged.
/ˌɡærənˈtiː/
A promise to repair or replace something for a period of time.
It has a two-year guarantee.
/ˈkʌstəmə sɜːvɪs/
The department you contact when there is a problem.
Customer service replied after nine days.
/kəmˈpleɪnt/
A formal statement that you are not happy. The verb is complain.
I made a complaint in writing.
/seɪl/
A period when a shop reduces its prices.
I bought it in the January sale.
/ˈbɑːɡən/
Something you buy much more cheaply than usual.
At that price it was a real bargain.
/rɪˈvjuː/
What a customer writes about a product afterwards.
I should have read the reviews first.
/ˈvaʊtʃə(r)/
A paper or code that gives you money off, or credit in a shop.
They offered me a voucher instead of my money.
/ˌsekənd ˈhænd/
Not new – somebody owned it before you.
I bought the desk second-hand and it is perfect.
/brænd/
The name of the company that makes a product.
It is a good brand, which is why I trusted it.
/ˌvæljuː fɔ ˈmʌni/
Worth what you paid, whether cheap or expensive.
It was not cheap, but it was excellent value for money.
Now read the story
Story · all 20 words
The Chair
In April I ordered a desk chair on the internet. I sat on it for the first time in July. This is the whole story, and I have told it at four separate dinners.
I had spent two weeks choosing. I read the reviews – all of them, including the angry ones, which are always the honest ones. I checked the brand. It was in the spring sale at almost half price, so it looked like a genuine bargain, and the delivery charge disappeared if you spent over fifty, which of course I then did.
The first thing that happened was nothing. For eleven days I could track my order and watch it sit in a warehouse forty minutes from my flat. Then the website changed its mind and told me the chair was out of stock, which was interesting, because I had already paid for it.
It arrived on the nineteenth day. The box was enormous and one corner of it had clearly met something heavy: the parcel was open at the bottom and one leg was visibly damaged. I built the rest of it anyway, out of hope, and discovered that the height lever was also faulty – the seat sank slowly to its lowest position under the weight of an adult, over about ninety seconds. Sitting on it felt like a very slow lift.
So I wrote to customer service. My first message was polite and long. Nobody replied. My second was polite and short, contained the words faulty and guarantee, and had photographs attached. Somebody replied within a day.
They offered me a voucher. I said no, and asked for a refund or a replacement. This took three more messages, and I learned something important during them: a written complaint with dates, photographs and the order number is treated completely differently from an unhappy one without them.
In the end they agreed to exchange it. The second chair came in one piece, arrived on the day they said, and the delivery man carried it up two flights of stairs and refused a tip.
I have now sat on this chair for eight hours a day for two years. My back stopped hurting in the first month. So despite everything, it was outstanding value for money – although if you had asked me in June I would have used other words.
The desk it stands under, incidentally, I bought second-hand from a woman two streets away for thirty dinars. It was delivered by my brother, in his car, in eleven minutes. It has never gone wrong.
Refund, exchange or guarantee? Shops use these three words very precisely, and asking for the wrong one weakens your case:
refund = your money back
exchange = the same thing again, or a different size or colour
guarantee (or warranty) = the company’s promise to repair or replace it for a fixed period
The sentence that works is: The item is faulty. I would like a refund, please.
Faulty or damaged? Faulty means it was made wrong – it does not work as it should. Damaged means something happened to it, usually in transit. Say which one it is: it arrived damaged puts the responsibility on the delivery, and it is faulty puts it on the product.
Complain and complaint. The verb is complain (I complained to the shop) and the noun is complaint with a t (I made a complaint). You complain to a person and complain about a thing.
Value for money does not mean cheap. It means you got what you paid for. Something expensive can be excellent value for money, and something cheap can be terrible value.
British and American: parcel / package · guarantee / warranty · second-hand / used · queue / line.
Buying: order, sale, bargain, brand, review, voucher, second-hand, value for money.
Getting it: delivery, delivery charge, parcel, track, out of stock.
When it goes wrong: faulty, damaged, complaint, customer service, refund, exchange, guarantee.
Write the four-line message you would send about a faulty item. Include the order number, say whether it is faulty or damaged, mention the guarantee, and ask clearly for a refund or an exchange.
Now practise with the questions below.
Check your understanding
Answer the questions below. You will see instantly if you are right.
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