Describe a time when you were not satisfied with a service.
You should say

– what the service was
– who provided it
– what happened
– and explain why you were unhappy with the service.

 band 9 sample answer:

I’m going to describe a time when I experienced poor service from staff in a restaurant. This happened a couple of months ago, when some family members, who live abroad, came to stay. We decided to visit a nearby town, and at some point everyone was a little hungry, so we thought we would have a bite to eat.

The first restaurant that we came across looked perfect. It had plenty of empty tables – we hadn’t booked in advance – and we were all happy with the menu. But as soon as we walked through the door, things started to go wrong, and we weren’t at all impressed with the attitude of the staff.

After standing around for a few minutes waiting for someone to greet us, I managed to attract the attention of a waitress who told me that we had come into the restaurant through the wrong door. So, I went over to the main door, only to be told by the manager that there were no tables free for a party of our size – there were eight of us. I could see several free tables with four seats, so I suggested simply moving two of these tables together. But the manager was adamant that this was impossible; our only option was to divide the family and sit at two separate tables.

By this time, some of my family members were getting fed up. The restaurant was half empty, yet we were being treated as if they didn’t need customers. We decided we didn’t want to sit at separate tables or stay in a place where we felt unwelcome. We left, feeling disappointed by how dismissive the restaurant manager had been, and fortunately we found a much friendlier place to eat just around the corner.