A customer reports five defective prints and asks for urgent replacements and a discount. AI can help draft the reply, but “we need them by Thursday” does not mean “we will deliver them by Thursday.” Before asking for a friendly email, separate what happened, what the customer wants, and what your team has approved.
A useful reply acknowledges the problem, explains the current position, and asks only for missing information. This complete fictional case gives you a reusable prompt and a way to catch commitments hidden inside reassuring language.
1. Prepare facts you can check
You work for the fictional print shop Marea Graphics. These are all the available notes. There is no additional policy authorizing compensation:
- [1] Order: MG-27, 24 prints, delivered on May 11. You are preparing the reply on May 12.
- [2] Problem: the customer reported vertical bands on five prints. The workshop confirmed the defect in the photos received. The cause is undetermined.
- [3] Customer request: the prints are needed on Friday, May 15. The customer requests five replacements before Thursday, May 14, and a 20% discount. These are requests, not accepted terms.
- [4] Internal status: case INC-14 is open. The workshop is reviewing whether it can reprint the five items. No replacement, discount, or delivery date has been approved.
- [5] Authority: customer service may explain the status and ask whether other prints are affected. It cannot approve compensation.
The numbers are review references; they do not belong in the customer email. For real work, use only tools and data your organization authorizes. Remove unnecessary identifiers and personal details. Replacing a name does not always prevent someone from being identified.
2. Copy a prompt with boundaries and sources
This prompt includes the complete notes, so you can copy it without rebuilding the example. When adapting it, replace the whole data block and check which actions remain authorized.
Draft an English email replying to a customer complaint. Recipient: [Customer]. Sender: Marea Graphics. Goal: acknowledge the confirmed defect, explain the current status, and ask whether any other prints are affected. Tone: friendly and direct. Include a subject line and a body of 100-140 words. Do not approve discounts, refunds, or replacements. Do not invent a cause, delivery date, or date for our next reply. Do not turn a customer request into our commitment. Do not send anything. Return the email first, without internal source references. Then provide a table of important statements and their sources [n], followed by unresolved questions. EXERCISE DATA: [1] Order MG-27: 24 prints delivered on May 11. Today is May 12. [2] Customer reported vertical bands on five prints. Workshop confirmed the defect in the photos. Cause undetermined. [3] Needed Friday, May 15. Customer requests five replacements before Thursday, May 14, and a 20% discount. Requests not accepted. [4] INC-14 open. Workshop reviewing whether it can reprint the five. No replacement, discount, or delivery date approved. [5] Customer service may explain the status and ask whether other prints are affected; it cannot approve compensation. END OF DATA.
The follow-up table is a review aid. It can be wrong too: check its references against the notes, even when every row has a source number.
3. An example customer reply
This is an illustrative editorial draft written to explain the method. It is not an output obtained or tested in an AI tool.
Subject: Review of the five prints in order MG-27
Hello, [Customer],
We are sorry that five prints in order MG-27 arrived with vertical bands. Our workshop has confirmed the defect in the photos you sent, and we have opened case INC-14.
We understand that you need the prints for Friday, May 15, and have requested replacements before Thursday, May 14, plus a 20% discount. The workshop is reviewing whether it can reprint the five items. At this point, we do not have an approved replacement, discount, or delivery date.
Have you noticed the same problem on any other prints in the order? This information would help us complete the review.
Kind regards,
Marea Graphics
The reply acknowledges a confirmed defect without inventing its cause. The deadline remains the customer's requirement. “Is reviewing” is supported by [4]; if that work had not started, the wording would need to change.
4. Check verbs that create commitments
| Problematic wording | What it adds | Supported correction |
|---|---|---|
| “We will send all five before Thursday” | An approved replacement and deadline | “You requested replacements before Thursday, May 14” [3] |
| “We will apply the 20% discount” | Acceptance of the discount | “We do not have an approved discount” [4] |
| “The carrier caused the damage” | An unknown cause | Omit the cause; it is undetermined [2] |
Even a short reply can promise too much: “We will give you a solution tomorrow” invents a date and an outcome. To communicate a next step with a deadline, first obtain confirmation from the person who will carry it out. The prompt cannot grant that authority.
5. Checks before sending
- Do the order, quantities, and dates match the current notes?
- Does every operational claim have a source that actually supports it?
- Are requests, work in progress, and approvals kept distinct?
- Have you avoided unconfirmed causes, compensation, and deadlines?
- Does the final question seek new information instead of asking for the same photos again?
- Have you replaced [Customer], checked the recipient, and kept the message as a draft until review is complete?
Quick exercise: find the unsupported leap
New notes: “Customer requests cancellation. Administration is checking whether cancellation is possible. No refund amount or timeline is confirmed.” Can you send “We have canceled your order and you will receive the money tomorrow”? Rewrite it.
See a worked answer
No. The sentence invents a cancellation, a refund, and a deadline. One alternative: “We have received your cancellation request. Administration is checking whether it can be processed; we do not yet have a confirmed cancellation, refund amount, or timeline.” If the notes did not say administration was already checking, you could not claim that work was in progress either.
This review also applies when an internal discussion becomes a customer email: an agreement must exist before you communicate it. Our guide to creating meeting minutes with AI shows how to distinguish agreements from proposals. Get to Work with AI extends the practice through 12 workshops, 12 exercises with worked solutions, and a final assignment that applies these checks to other office tasks.