Describe A Problem You Had While Shopping Online Or In A Store: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

When it happened
What you bought
What problem you had
And describe the party.

99 unique answers with expert feedback

Show all 99 answers

Cue 1:When it happened

Begin by mentioning the time frame when the online shopping experience occurred, such as during a festival or sale.
Provide context about your shopping habits, like if you usually shop online or prefer physical stores.

Example

Last month, during the Diwali festival, I decided to do some online shopping to buy gifts for my family. I usually prefer shopping online because of the convenience it offers.

Cue 2:What you bought

Clearly state the item you intended to purchase, including any specific details that make it relatable.
Mention why you chose this particular item, perhaps due to its significance or popularity.

Example

I was looking to buy a beautiful set of traditional Indian sweets to gift to my relatives. These sweets are a staple during Diwali, and I wanted to ensure I got the best quality.

Cue 3:What problem you had

Describe the specific issue you faced while shopping, whether it was related to the website, delivery, or product quality.
Explain how this problem affected your shopping experience and your feelings about it.

Example

Unfortunately, after placing my order, I received a notification that the sweets I ordered were out of stock. I was really disappointed because I had planned to surprise my family with them.

Cue 4:And describe the party

Talk about the significance of the occasion and how the problem impacted the celebration.
Share how you resolved the issue or what alternative you found to still make the occasion special.

Example

Diwali is a time for family gatherings and celebrations, and I wanted to make it special. After the issue, I quickly searched for another vendor and found a local store that offered similar sweets. I managed to get them in time for the celebration, and my family loved them!

Conclusion

Example

Overall, while my online shopping experience had its challenges, it taught me the importance of having backup plans. In the end, I was able to enjoy Diwali with my family, which was the most important part.

Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.

Tips to answer this Cue Card

1: Vague Descriptions

Being vague can make your answer less engaging and informative. Avoid general statements that do not provide specific details about your experience.

Tip

Use specific examples and details about the product, the problem, and your feelings to create a vivid picture for the examiner.

2: Ignoring the Cues

Failing to address all the cues can lead to an incomplete answer. This may result in a lower score as it shows a lack of organization.

Tip

Structure your response by clearly addressing each cue: when it happened, what you bought, the problem, and your feelings about it.

Overly Negative Tone

Focusing too much on negativity can make your response less appealing. It’s important to balance your experience with some positive aspects.

Tip

While discussing the problem, also mention any positive outcomes or lessons learned to create a more balanced narrative.

IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

Answer

I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.

Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

Answer

The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.

Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

Answer

As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.

Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

Answer

When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.

Describe a book you recently read

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

Answer

It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

All Answers

Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

Band 5-6

There was an incident which happened in my life recently when I was shopping for my 24th birthday. So, I was about to buy a shirt from the online store where many platforms were selling these online shopping. So, I selected a rail rapid store which is in online which is a good and decent brand to purchase. So, I compared like few different kind of shirt models with suits for me and I placed them in the cart and after all the comparisons I finalized a shirt and I checked all the size related information in the size chart and I ordered the exact size which suits for me but later when I placed the order but later when I received it when I tried it for the first time it wasn't a good fit for me it was not a good fit for me because it was little bit tight. And after checking all the size related information even after checking it I placed the order but still there was a size related problem in that. So I thought I might cancel and I might get the exchange but I don't have any enough time and even for the return they were asking me to wait for a 4 to 7 working days to return my amount. So it happened in and I wasn't happy for that for that online order. In my opinion it's better to shop offline to visit store and make a trial of it and by.

Band 5-6

so while shopping online I got I have to repeat so I remember this case when I had done online shopping two months back by mistake I had so so two months back I had a bad experience with online shopping as I have chosen one dress for my birthday it is kind of a problem you had while shopping online or in a store it is kind of a problem you had while shopping online so I remember one day when I so I remember two months back when I had to shop for one of my bosom friends birthday I have I wanted to so I remember two months back when I was doing online shopping for one of my bosom friend for her for her birthday so I wanted to gift her a dress which is red in color and it has a flared bathroom so two months back I remember I was shopping online so two months back I remember I was doing online shopping for one of my bosom friend because it was her birthday and I want to gift her cute little dress which was in red color and the thing which I love the most about the dress was the flared so I wanted to buy it firstly I went to the one of the most known brand which was H&M so I go to their website I clicked on the dress which I like the most so everything was fine the size the color and also all of all of the measurements but when I go started for the paying schedule it was not picking up like it was already saying that you can pay offline so I agreed over that I was waiting for the dress to come so that I can gift her but when the dress has arrived it was not of that same color and the dress was too short as my friend is too much heighted secondly when I gave the money so there was an option in the Mintra that you can return the dress within a given period of time but it was too difficult to replace it or to give it back so it was a disastrous experience for me because I never shop online as much but when I started doing it it always provide me the better experiences as I am not much of the window shopping kind of a person I like to go and have shopping offline so that was the issue that I had.

Band 5-6

I once bought a dress online I bought this dress during my sister's marriage this was quite expensive so once the dress got delivered I found that it was a damaged piece and the size didn't fit me well so I thought of just exchanging or just returning it but then when the in the portal when I saw for the exchange it said that there was out of stock of this product hence I thought of returning the product. To the disguise I tried so much I mean I just returned the product but then later on the actual refund amount I was supposed to get was within 24 to 48 hours but I I didn't get any refund amount so then I contacted the team and I contacted the customer care but I didn't get a proper review from them I didn't get the support so I think that was just a waste of time and moreover there was it was a waste of money so this I really regret buying that dress

Band 5-6

recently I had to buy a hat which I happened to see in a mall while I was teleshopping when I checked the prices of it in the official website it was quite reasonable I was happy with the pricing then I proceeded with the buying of it but later on I found out that they had added an additional shipping charges for me which was equivalent to the price of hat that was being sold out well that's ridiculous right we in that price you can buy two separate hats why buy a single hat with additional charges of a hat itself so I tried to inquire it about I tried to inquire it but no use but it was of no use as you know the customer support as the customer support denied to give a satisfactory answers for me so I ended up in not buying it by the way which I considered as a good decision even today

Band 5-6

There is a problem, even though if you are shopping online or in store, the problem while we are shopping online may be a technical glitch, because of the technical glitch, we can't order at a time. So that would be one of the problem and some cases, in some cases, the products are replaced by something else, like we are not ordered that, but then we receive the products which are unnecessary for us and then, besides that, there are many more advantages by shopping online. We can get most, mostly get discounts on online shoppings. Going to stores, the problem would be time-consuming, if we are going to shop offline, stores means it will consume more time compared to online shopping and then, other most, the bargaining is a most and foremost problem in the shopping center, because, you know, we can't give money how much they asked, they ask for high range of money, which doesn't even worth that product, so that would be a main disadvantage or a problem and then, crowd, for me, I don't like crowded places, so in offline stores, there are too much of crowd that we can't move around easily, so that is the problem in online, offline shop. And there is also an advantage of online, that would be varieties of collection, we can see and touch, feel the fabric of that particular product, so yeah, that would be an advantage for offline shopping.

Band 5-6

Yes, today I am going to talk about regarding shopping online, like couple of weeks ago I shopped in online stream, for example apps like IGO, Myntra and so n number of apps are there in online shopping, I choose IGO app, one of my friend suggested, he advised me to shop in this app, it was good collections are there, but I last week I was ordered one cloth like white shirt and black pant, in the app the quality and what that color as extremely astonishing, but while on the time the order I have, I had received, I saw the cloths quality are very poor and those are like very thin like cloths materials, so on the time I felt very bad experience in the online shopping, compared to the offline shopping is a better and it's more convenient and easily replaceable in the offline shopping, like so if the costs also affordable in offline shopping, so that's why I felt very horrible experience in the online shopping, so that's why I suggest my family members and my friends also don't choose shopping in the online sectors.

Band 5-6

Online shopping has its own advantages and drawbacks while online shopping has its own advantages and drawbacks. Once when I was shopping online, I bought a dress which was floral dress and I thought I... Oh my god! No! Kumud, you don't have to speak like this! Shhh! Online shopping has its own advantages and drawbacks while as we... Online shopping has its own advantages and drawbacks as we all are aware of the scammers are available online that offers some really good quality items as well as branded items for a very reasonable price and the price... Online shopping has its own advantages and drawbacks as we are... as everyone is aware of the fact that... Online shopping has its own advantages and drawbacks as everyone is aware of the fact... Online shopping has its own advantages and drawbacks as we all are aware of the fact that... Online shopping has its own advantages and drawbacks as we all are aware of the fact that... Online shopping has its own advantages and drawbacks as we all are aware of the fact that... Online shopping has its own advantages and drawbacks as we all are aware of the fact that...

Band 5-6

I remember back when I was a kid, there was a trend going on of Fitbit, a smartwatch that used to track our calories, heartbeat and how much steps did we walk today. So being a first time, I just ordered it from the Flipkart and in return, after waiting for 7 days, I got a Fitbit band without the machine. I guess when I was ordering, I just went through some misinterpretation.

Band 5

complete life last summer shopping online i had ordered a some dresses which was very beautiful and i want to exchange it with another size but it was not in the stock so i was hesitating to return it and i returned to it, it took many days for it to return the only strong policy is that you have to return it sometimes 7 days or more the policy stops if i return it so i have to return it every time, take it back it's about to be released, it is now and i have to call them over to raise a complaint, they were not allowed allegedly complained and later on they finally allowed them to make a complaint and worked on it it took me so much of time to just return one dress and get the different pack so it just took a lot of time my next step i was thinking it's ok because i have to get this dress, it's wrong, i am not liking it i have to get another dress from the same store they were not refunded we can get refunded if we don't like the dress but i have to have a purchase from the same store so it's good that in online store we have that kind of benefit that we don't have in a store i prefer buying clothes from online mostly

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