Handling a Complaint: the present perfect simple and continuous for complaints
About this lesson
This B2 Business English lesson plan teaches handling a customer complaint with the present perfect simple and continuous.
- Grammar
- The present perfect simple for results and numbers (We've packed fifty new bags.), the continuous for activity over time (We've been looking into it since eight.), and state verbs that stay simple.
- Topic
- A Hamburg distributor's complaint about torn bags and the wrong labels, and the Portland supplier's answer, with phrases such as look into, a credit memo and at no charge.
- Activities
- Two emails to read, the phone call to hear, self-checking drills, a chat with a hotel whose coffee is late, a role-play wheel, and a reply and recording as homework.
What's inside
Chapter 1Warm-up: We Need to Talk
Chapter 2Reading: A Pallet of Problems
Chapter 3Listening: No Excuses
Chapter 4Grammar: We've Been Looking Into It
- Study the scheme: present perfect simple or continuous?Grammar schemeTry it
- Choose the correct option: simple or continuous?Choose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: present perfect simple or continuousFill in the gapsTry it
- Fill in the table: ask questions in the same tense as the answersFill in the tableUnlock
- Choose the correct sentenceQuizUnlock
Chapter 5Speaking: I'm Sorry to Hear That
Chapter 6Homework: Making It Right
- Choose the correct option: Jess's email after the callChoose the optionUnlock
- Sort the phrases: calm and professional, or making it worse?Sort into columnsUnlock
- Find the matching pairs: complaint collocationsMemory gameUnlock
- Write a reply to a complaintWriting, checked by the teacherUnlock
- Record the story of a problem you've been dealing withSpeaking, checked by the teacherUnlock
Customer service vocabulary
10 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.
+7 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words
- in transit
- a credit memo
- a replacement shipment
- a gesture of goodwill
- make up for
- keep someone posted
- at no charge
Grammar: present perfect simple vs continuous
A reply to an unhappy client mixes two kinds of news: jobs that are done and work that is still going on. Learners use the simple for results and the continuous for effort, read the signal words that choose between them, and keep state verbs such as know in the simple form.
Present perfect simple or continuous?
Saying what you've done and what you've been doing about a problem
Have + past participle, or have been + -ing
Both forms start with have or has. The simple adds the past participle (We've sent a replacement.); the continuous adds been and the -ing form (We've been looking into it.). In questions, have comes first: Have you been waiting long?
| Form | How to make it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | have / has + past participle | We've sent a replacement. |
| Continuous | have / has + been + verb-ing | We've been looking into it. |
| Questions | have / has + subject + … | Have you found the cause? Have you been waiting long? |
The result or the activity?
The simple says the job is done: I've read your email. The continuous says how the time went, often on something unfinished: I've been reading the report. A number of finished actions needs the simple: I've called the carrier three times.
Simple: the result, the job is done
- I've read your email. (I've finished it.)
- We've packed fifty new bags. (They're ready to go.)
- I've called the carrier three times. (How many? A number.)
Continuous: the activity, often not finished
- I've been reading the report. (I'm not at the end yet.)
- We've been packing bags all morning. (That's how we've spent the time.)
- I've been calling the carrier since ten. (How long? A period.)
How many or how long? Read the signal
How many…?, so far with a number, already, yet and just point to the simple. How long…?, for, since and all morning point to the continuous, and so does a result you can see: Sorry about the mess: we've been unpacking boxes.
Look for the signal
| Signal | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a number: three emails, fourteen bags, twice | simple | I've sent Daniel three emails. |
| How many…? How many times…? so far + a number | simple | How many bags have you checked so far? |
| already, yet, just + a finished job | simple | We've already found the cause. |
| How long…? for, since, all morning | continuous | How long have you been waiting? |
| an activity that is still going on | continuous | We've been checking the pallets since eight, and we haven't finished. |
| you can see the result of an activity | continuous | Sorry about the mess: we've been unpacking boxes. |
| a state verb: know, be, understand, believe, belong | simple, even with How long, for and since | I've known Daniel for a year. |
How long…? or How many…?
How long…? → continuous
- How long have you been relabeling the bags?
- Since nine o'clock. / For two hours.
How many…? → simple
- How many bags have you relabeled?
- Thirty so far.
State verbs, for and since
State verbs stay simple, even after How long: I've known Daniel for a year, never I've been knowing. For and since need the present perfect, not the present: I've been waiting since Monday. With work, live and study, both forms are fine; a finished time takes the past simple.
for and since: not the present tense
Many languages use the present tense here, but English doesn't. Say I've been waiting since Monday, not I'm waiting since Monday, and We've known Daniel for a year, not We know Daniel for a year.
When both are fine, and when to use the past
With work, live and study, both forms are fine with for and since: I've worked / I've been working here for two years. With a finished time (yesterday, last week, at nine this morning), use the past simple: The pallet arrived yesterday afternoon.
Effort first, then the result
In a reply to a complaint, the two forms work as a pair: We've been looking into it since your email arrived, and we've found the cause. The continuous shows the work you've put in; the simple shows what is finished.
In a complaint, use both
Show the effort, then the result: We've been looking into it since your email arrived, and we've found the cause. The continuous says you've been working on it; the simple says what is done.
Typical mistakes
I've been sending Daniel three emails.
I've sent Daniel three emails.
A number of finished actions: simple.
I'm waiting for your answer since Monday.
I've been waiting for your answer since Monday.
With since and for, use the present perfect.
We've been knowing Daniel for a year.
We've known Daniel for a year.
Know is a state verb: never continuous.
How long have you checked the pallets?
How long have you been checking the pallets?
How long + an activity: continuous.
More lessons on this grammar: Present perfect continuous lessons and exercises · Present perfect lessons and exercises
Try the present perfect simple and continuous exercises
Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.
What's in the lesson
- 11 auto-checked exercises
- 3 games
- 2 teacher-checked tasks
- 2 real-life documents
- 1 grammar scheme
- 1 set of word cards
- 1 audio clip
- 1 picture
- 1 transcript
The main objectives of this lesson are to:
- report finished work and numbers with the present perfect simple: We've found the cause. I've called the carrier three times.
- describe effort over time with the continuous and How long…?: We've been checking the pallets since eight.
- keep state verbs simple and never use the present with since: I've known him for a year. I've been waiting since Monday.
- answer a complaint without excuses: apologize, explain the cause, offer a replacement shipment or a credit memo, and promise to keep the client posted
Lesson 9 opens Problems and growth, unit 3 of Business English B2 · A Year at Wrenfield, a course set at a fictional coffee roaster in Portland, Oregon; the unit has learners handle a complaint, a late shipment, a product launch and a new hire. It builds on lesson 2 (the present perfect against the past simple, with since and for) and the state verbs of lesson 1; lesson 10 follows with the passive. A complaint needs both forms: the client wants to hear the effort and the result.
The warm-up opens boxes of questions about complaints and teaches ten phrases with pictures and audio, from look into to a gesture of goodwill; learners match eight to situations. Students read a distributor's complaint and the supplier's first reply, then hear the AI-voiced call in which the head of sales apologizes, explains the cause and offers a fix. Four self-checking drills follow the scheme, among them a table of questions in the same tense as the answers. In the chat, students calm a hotel client whose coffee is late, and a wheel deals out complaint role-plays.
Homework starts with three self-checking exercises: the supplier's follow-up email with forms to choose, phrases to sort into calm or making it worse, and a memory game of collocations. Then students answer an office client's complaint in 100 to 150 words, using each form at least twice, and record the story of a problem they've been dealing with; the teacher reviews both.
- Grammar:
- present perfect simple · present perfect continuous · state verbs
- Topic:
- complaints · customer service · deliveries
Teaching tips
- Collect real complaints before class: in an in-company group, each learner brings one their team has handled, with the names removed, and the class uses them for the wheel's role-plays.
- Play the call twice: first for the cause, then for the fix. On the second listen, learners note every we've… under two headings, done and still going on.
- Turn the question table into a quick interview: one learner reads an answer such as I've called you four times, and the partner asks the question in the same tense.
- With one-to-one professionals, start from their inbox: take a real complaint they've received, without names, and plan the reply together before they write their own.
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The whole course: Business English B2 · A Year at Wrenfield
20 lessons at B2 in American English that follow a year at Wrenfield Coffee Roasters in Portland, Oregon, as founder Claire Morgan and her team win a Dutch hotel contract. Learners network, write emails, run meetings, negotiate, handle complaints and present figures, with one grammar point per lesson.See the course
Unit 1 First contacts
networking, a company story, a business lunch and emails: present tenses, the present perfect, question tags, indirect questions
Unit 2 Meetings and figures
scheduling, sales figures, running a meeting and negotiating: future forms, trends, gerunds and infinitives, conditionals
Unit 3 Problems and growth
a complaint, a late shipment, a launch and hiring: the present perfect continuous, the passive, comparatives, relative clauses
Lesson 9 · you're hereHandling a ComplaintPresent perfect simple vs continuous
Lesson 10The Late ShipmentThe passive in all tenses
Lesson 11Launching a ProductComparatives and superlatives with modifiers
Lesson 12Hiring the Right PersonDefining and non-defining relative clauses
Unit 4 Reports, prices and feedback
reporting back, explaining prices, expenses and feedback: reported speech, linking words, modals of obligation, past modals
Unit 5 Looking back and ahead
what went wrong, other cultures, an agency and next year: the third and mixed conditionals, past deduction, the causative, the future perfect
