Unit SixOrders and Acknowledgements

Learning Objectives

To describe the form of an orderTo learn how to place an order

General View OrderAn order is an offer to buy. It is common form of

correspondence for obtaining goods or services. To be sure to get exactly what is being ordered, accuracy and clarity are essential. Many buyers now use printed order forms which ensure that all the necessary information is given.

When writing an order letter, you will include all the information the reader need to identify the merchandise, such as:

Quantity

Dimension

Price

Material Capacity

Pattern of an Order LetterIn the opening let the reader know immediately that

this is a purchase authorization and not merely an

information inquiry.If you’re ordering many items, list them vertically in the

body of your letter. Include as much specific data as

possible: quantity, order number, complete description,

unit price, and total price, etcIn the closing tell how you plan to pay for the

merchandise.In addition to payment information, tell when the

merchandise should be sent and express

appreciation.

Guidelines for writing1. Here are some points which may be useful

for writing order letters:(1) Begin an order with referring to some previous

contact.

(2) Give a detailed description of the goods needed including names of commodity, models, quality and quantity, etc.

(3) Specify the package, mode of payment, port of shipment, time of delivery, etc.

2. The following points are about tips on how to reply an order.

(1) Begin the letter with many thanks of the client’s interest in your goods.

(2) Accept or reject, acknowledge the order immediately.(3) Better repeat the terms stipulated in the order when it

is accepted. (4) Give reasons when the order is rejected.(5) Offer suitable substitutions in case the goods needed

are unavailable. There is no set principle for writing such kinds of

letters. As long as the purpose it achieved, the writer can compose it freely.

Guidelines for writing I. Placing an order

Sometimes, a buyer might use a business letter to place his order. Usually, however, they are written on a company’s official printed order form called a “Purchase Order”, which makes it easy to read all the important information. A buyer can use its own company’s form or it can fill out the seller’s form.

Specimen Letter-1 (Placing an order by sending an order form)PURCHASE ORDER

Order No. GHK4567

April 21, 2012

From: G. HAROLD KANGIS RESTAURANTS, INC.

Itchicu Park, 999 Des Voex Road, Cincinnati, OH 30897 USA

Tel ： (406) 444-5678 Email: ghkang@www.xyz.com

To: New Zealand Meats, LTD. 8009 Lambchop Station Auckland, New Zealand

Please supply the following:

Quantity Description Catalogue No. Price / unit

100 kilo mutton NZFM90834 $ 120/K

200 kilo beef NZFM76234 $ 180/K

Total amount: $43,470.00 CIF New York

Shipping + Packaging: $ 300.00

Discount: 10% on orders over 200 kilos

Delivery: June,2012

Terms: by L/C at sight

For G. HAROLD KANGIS RESTAURANTS, INC.

David Lin

Purchasing Manager

Specimen Letter-2 （ Cover letter for order form ） Skyline Company

36 Quan Street, Tianjin, ChinaTel: 86-22-23665688 E-mail: skyline11@yahoo.com.cn

April 22, 2012H. SIMPSON & CO., LTD298 South Street Sydney, AustraliaDear Mr. Warner,Enclosed is our April 21, 2012 Purchase Order No. GHK4567 for mutton and beef. Please note the following points:(1) the total order price is $ 43,470; (2) the 10% discount for purchases over 200 kilos has been

deducted from the total price of the order; (3) delivery should be made by May 20, 2006.Please contact me if you have any questions about this order.Yours truly,Simon Lu Enclosure

2. Placing an order by sending an order letter

In an order, the buyer must state clearly and accurately all the terms of transaction. Usually an order should include name of commodity, quantity, article number, specification, total amount, and price terms (CIF, FOB, etc.), mode of packing, delivery date and port of destination.

Specimen Letter-3 (Placing an initial order)Prohealth Pte Ltd.

102 F Pasir Panjong Road #05-04 Citylink Warehouse Complex Singapore118530

Tel: 65-2768328 Fax:65-2768128 E-mail: enlow@singnet.com.sg

August 15, 2012Oriental Trading Company26 Zhongshan RoadWuhan, HubeiChinaDear Sirs,We have received your letter dated August 10th. And after testing your samples you sent us, we take pleasure in placing initial order with you for the following:

Number Item Quantity Price FOB NY

S-2 Health Tea 100 cartons US $ 100 per carton

S-3 Fat Reducing Tea 200 cartons US $ 120 per carton

We would like to stress that the quality of your

delivery should be in accordance with that of the

samples you sent us. Should the execution of the

first order turn out to our entire satisfaction, we will

place a regular order in the near future.

We will open an irrevocable L/C with your company

as beneficiary as soon as we receive a notice that

the goods are ready for shipment.

Yours faithfully,

Marvin Lytton

Specimen Letter-4 （ Placing a repeat order ） March 15, 2012

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your letter of 8th March sending us

some new samples of woolen sweaters. We find

both quality and price satisfactory and are pleased

to give a repeat order for the following items on

condition that they will be supplied from current

stock at the price named: Quantity Size Price (net)

100 doz. small US $ 1200.00 per doz.

200 doz. medium US $ 1400.00 per doz.

100 yards large US $ 1600.00 per doz.

Parking: each sweater to be packed in a polythene

bag, per dozen in a tinned carton, with 20 dozen

cartons in a wooden case.

We expect to find a ready market for these products

and hope to place further and larger orders with you

in the near future.

Our usual terms of payment are cash against

document and we hope they will be acceptable to

you.

Please send us your confirmation of sales in

triplicate.

Yours Sincerely,

Mark Miller

3. Acknowledgement of an order

On receiving an order from buyer, whether it is accepted or not, it is a must for the seller to acknowledge it promptly, expressing his thanks for the order. If he accepts it, he should reply to confirm the order and tell the client what is under way. If not, may urge to change the information of the order, or reject it and give the reasons so that the good business relationship is sustained.

Specimen Letter-5 (Acknowledgment of an initial order)The United Import & Export Co. Ltd.

101 Maple Street, Washington, USA Tel: (71) 302-6874562 Fax: (71) 302-6874570 E-mail:

maple@gmail.com March 22, 2012

Star Trading Company24 Nanjing RoadShanghai, China

Dear Sirs,We thank you for your order of March 15 for 300 Phoenix Brand Bicycles, and welcome you as our new customer.We confirm supply of the goods at the price stated in your order, and have arranged for delivery by the

end of the month. We are quite sure that you will be

completely satisfied with the goods and our service.

As you may not familiar with the wide range of our

products, we are enclosing a copy of our latest

catalogue. We hope that our handling of your first

order will lead to further business between us and

mark the beginning of good working relationship.

Yours faithfully,

Bruce

Specimen Letter-6 (Sending Sales Confirmation) Orient Trading Co. Ltd.

8 Jianghai North Road, Wuhan 430022, China Tel: 86-2785886628 Fax:86-27-85886629 E-

mail:lotus88@163.com October 22, 2012

Smith Sweet-Home Installations Ltd. Jalan, Malakas No.73 Jakarta, Indonesia

Dear Sirs,We highly appreciate your Order No. 18 for 500 sets of Lotus Brand Washing Machines and are pleased to send you herewith our Sales Confirmation No. AP-111 in duplicate. Please sign and return one copy of them for our file.

The Washing Machines under the order will be

carefully packed in box lined with shock-proof

corrugated paper to prevent damage in transit. You

may rely on us to give your order prompt attention.

We feel sure you will be happy to collect good

comments about the goods from your consumers,

and build up a market for the product in your

country.

We expect to do long-term business with you.

Yours faithfully,

Colin A. Ryan

Specimen Letter-7 （ Buyer declining an order ）

Simpson & Co. Ltd 178 South Street, CA94558 USA

Tel: (415) 555-5760 Fax: (415)555-5785 E-mail:simpson@paradin.com

October 5, 2012Wuhan Victory Trading Company,45Xinghua West, Wuhan430023, ChinaDear Sirs,We refer you to the S/C No.567 which stipulates shipment to be made not later than 10th October. We regret that so far we have not yet received the goods nor any other information about the shipment.

When we place our order with you, we stressed the

importance of dispatching the goods. They are

required for the winter sales in this country and they

should therefore arrive here by the end of October.

Since this kind of delay would cause us serious

problems with our clients, we have no alternative but

to cancel this order. We regret this action, but you

will appreciate that our customers insist on delivery

by that date.

Yours faithfully,

Larry Simpson

Specimen Letter-8 (Seller declining an order-offering substitute)

Long Beach Company1201 Jalan Street, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

E-mail: longbeach@yahoo.comSeptember 28, 2012

New American Trading Co., Inc.6-8 Manhattan, New YorkNY1244U.S.A

Dear Sirs,Thank you for your order dated September 20 for 200 Jialing Brand Motorcycles.While we appreciate your efforts in pushing the sales of our products, we very much regret that we

are not in a position to offer you the desired quality,

owing to excessive demand. However, we should like to recommend our Changfeng Brand

Motorcycles as a substitute, which is of the same

quality as Jialing Brand Motorcycles, but 12% lower

in price. We are sure that you will find a ready

market for this excellent product at your end.

If you are able to close business as we propose here,

please cable us as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully,

Teddy Synge

Further Refinement

Called the “Seven Cs” , the principles for business communication put forward by professor Emeritus Herta A. Murphy, University of Washington, and her two colleagues in University of Michigan are completeness, correctness, clarity, conciseness, concreteness, courtesy, consideration. “Seven Cs” refer to the evaluation of foreign letters in the word choice, sentence structure, content, tone, attitudes and other aspects of business letter writing. Effective application of the “Seven Cs” principles can create a miracle in business communication.

Further Refinement

●In business writing, the aim of writing principles should be to make it quick and easy for the reader to understand what the writer is writing about. Business people do not have the time to spend reading long, rambling letters or trying to decipher difficult writing. Therefore, conciseness is one of the writing principles in business letter writing. To achieve conciseness of business letter writing, try to keep the sentences short, and avoid wordy expression and redundancy, or repetition, and eliminate excessive details. Let us see how to improve the following mail.

The original mail

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your message of October 5, telling us the availability date of the above title. Unfortunately our local customer asked us to reduce the quantity of this order from 50 to 25 copies.

Could you, therefore, back order 25 copies instead of 50 and send them as soon as they become available via Air Express?

Yours Sincerely,

…

Comments

As it shows, the information that the receiver has already known should not be mentioned repeatedly in the first sentence of the original mail. And the second sentence is lengthy with the words like “local” and “the quantity” etc. Besides, the term “back order” is not properly used here.

The refined mail Dear Sir,

Thank you for your message of October 5. Unfortunately our customer has requested that we

reduce (the quantity of) this order from 50 to 25 copies.

Therefore, would you please send by air freight only 25 copies as soon as the books become available?

Yours sincerely, …

KEY TO UNIT SIX

KEY TO UNIT SIXI. Translate the following sentences into Chinese1. We enclose a trial order ． If the quality is up to our expectation ， we shall send further

orders in the near future ． Your prompt attention to this order will be appreciated ．2. If this first order is satisfactorily executed ， we shall place further orders with you ．3. We enclose our order ， but must point out that the falling market here will leave us little

or no margin of profit ． We must ask you for a better price in respect of future supplies ．4. The material supplied must be absolutely waterproof ， and we place our order subject to

this guarantee ．5. While thanking you for your order ， we have to explain that supplies of raw materials are

becoming more and more difficult to obtain ， and we have no alternative but to decline your order ．

6. It is regrettable to see an order dropped owing to no agreement on price ； however ， we wish to recommend you another quality at a lower price for your consideration ．

7. Your order is receiving our immediate attention ， and you can depend on us to effect delivery well within your time limit ．

8. We have booked the following order according to your 1etter of July 4 and wish to assure you that , upon receipt of the relevant credit ， we shall not fail to effect shipment in time ．

9. Your order is booked and will be handled with great care ． Please open the relevant L ／C ， which must reach here one month before the date of shipment ．

10.This order must be filled within three weeks, otherwise we will have to cancel the order ．

II. Correct one mistake in each of the following sentences.

1. satisfaction

2. on terms and conditions

3. to the execution of

4. on your own risk

5. alternatives

III. Refine the following business mail to achieve better effect. 　

We would like place an order for 44 RAM#1777 control switches per the attached order entry sheet.

The unsold merchandise will be returned within this week.

Best regards,

…

IV. Write an order by making use of the ideas given below.

Omitted.

V. According to the order you’ve just written write a rejecting letter owing to short of stock.

Omitted