Model Answer for IELTS Speaking Part 2 – Topic: Describe a time you received horrible (bad) service

Describe a time you received horrible (bad) service.

You should say:

• When it happened

• Where did it happen

• Who you were with

• What happened

• Why the service was horrible

MODEL ANSWER:

• There are many occasions when I have received extremely good service at places like hotels, restaurants, government offices etc

• But sometimes things went wrong and the experience was not good.

• Today I would like to talk about one such incident when I received horrible service at a restaurant

• It happened during the last summer.

• I had just finished my college and all my friends decided to go for a party.

• One of my cousins from Canada, who is also my best friend was also visiting us during that time.

• So we decided to go to a newly opened restaurant in our city.

• We had heard a lot of good reviews about this restaurant from everyone.

• It was a Chinese restaurant located in the centre of our town.

• When we reached the restaurant we were told to wait for 1 hour as the restaurant was completely full and there was a waiting period to get inside.

• So we had to stand in a queue for more than 1 hour to gain entry inside the restaurant.

• The moment we entered the restaurant we noticed the tables were dirty, so we asked the waiter to clean them.

• It took them 15 minutes to do the cleaning and then ask us for ordering.

• We ordered quickly as we were very hungry.

• But despite our repeated requests to hurry up, they took 1 hour to prepare our food.

• We also complained to the manager but his response was also not good.

• He said we will have to wait as there is huge rush.

• Finally, our food came and it did not taste good as it was not cooked properly.

• We again complained to the manager but he was not ready to listen to us.

• So we paid the bill and left to eat at another restaurant.

• This was the bad service that we received at a restaurant and we will not recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Part 3 – Follow Up Questions

1. What kind of services are bad services?

I think not all services are bad services, only when a particular service fails to fulfill its offering than we can call it a bad service. For example if a restaurant does not serve good quality food or delays the service, it can be called as a bad service.

2. Why do some people choose to remain silent when they receive bad services?

Some people choose to remain silent because they think it is a waste of time to complaint against bad service. They think it might lead to unnecessary argument which they want to avoid.

3. Who should be responsible for bad services?

I think it depends on the situation but mostly the person who is providing the service should be held responsible because it is their duty to make sure that customers are not disappointed.

4. As a boss, what would you do to prevent bad services?

As a boss, I would make sure that everything is well organised and the staff is trained well to handle all the requests. Also I will train them to be polite with the customers.