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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.
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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    Tip

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

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    All Answers

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

    Band 6-7

    Recently, last week Saturday, I ordered from Nayaka Pink Friday Sale, I bought some stuff for myself and I got 600 rupees discount and when I ordered the estimated delivery date was Monday, 24th November. So, I ordered it immediately because I needed it and then when on Monday, I tried to reach the delivery partner, I couldn't reach them and then they said that you were not available at the time of the delivery and I think that's really bad service. I was so disappointed with them because I have never had this bad experience with Nayaka and still I haven't received its 28th of November and still I have been talking to their customer care. I think they are trying to help me out in their own way but I don't think it's working because still I haven't received my order and showing that I will be receiving it tomorrow, 29th of November and I am not available tomorrow so I guess it's going to be a problem. I think I will contact with them again and reschedule my delivery.

    Band 6-7

    I came across few issues with online platforms especially on on snitch where I was going to purchase a brown color shirt so initially when I was going through the shirt I thought it might be light brown but when it came to my home after I ordered it looked like a dark brown so it becomes difficult to look through the website and order accordingly but when I go to the traditional way of but when I prefer traditional way of shopping it somewhere around becomes easier to select the color and size of it because size is also one of the parameters which which I face issue during the purchase of a shirt via online shopping but yeah I do believe that during traditional way of shopping somewhere you can go to the fittings room and check your size and color but somewhere around the availability of the variety availability of the shirts sizes becomes difficult when you prefer traditional shopping so in that way it really became difficult few months back and it it was definitely not a good experience purchasing from online because the color and sizes it really varies a lot when you order and get delivered to your house and I would always prefer traditional shopping because it gives you a different feeling and experience

    Band 6-7

    For me, finding a watch online is one of the most difficult tasks that I've ever performed. It's a tremendous challenge because finding the right watch for me is just too difficult. The reason why this is such a big challenge is because I was born with tiny wrists. My wrists are so small that most watches don't fit on it. This drastically reduces my ability in order to wear every type of watch. Therefore, whenever I go to see a watch, and I love it, there's a thought which always creeps in my mind, which is, Yash, this watch looks wonderful, but will it fit my small wrist? After which I have to take a lot of time to scroll through the page and finally find the dimensions. Now with the dimensions, I have to check the lug-to-lug measurement, the dial size, and a number of metrics just to see whether it fits within 45 millimeters or not. Once it's finally within 45 millimeters, I can be rest assured that the watch can be purchased. However, this doesn't end over here. Once I find the watch which is the right size, price is always an issue. My watch size happens to be very unusual because of which watch manufacturers usually price it either extremely high or extremely low. Whether it's extremely low quality is a compromise, but if it's extremely high, the quality is top-notch, but I cannot afford it. Therefore, finding a watch for me has always been a trouble.

    Band 6-7

    I faced a problem some 2 years back when I was shopping online. I was shopping, I was purchasing a saree which is an Indian outfit, generally women's, women wears it. I was purchasing it for my mother with, from a well-known e-commerce provider. The ordering process, the online ordering process and the delivery process was fine but there was some issue with the saree. My mother actually didn't liked it, the color of that. It happens sometimes that whatever you see in photos might not be, you will like it in reality. But the problem was not that because my mother was not actually, she wasn't okay with the fabric of that, the feel of the fabric, I choose to return it. Now upon returning, there is a problem which I really faced. The return process was so sluggish that the return never came but the product actually went to them. Now it could be a issue in a supply chain or it could be a manual error as well. But this is a problem which I really faced. Upon inquiring and talking numerous times with the customer care and exchanging a lot of emails with their team, I could not able to find the solution to that. It was time consuming and for most period of the time, I was not able to understand what to do. Luckily, in a span of a month time, I got the response but that was a problem which I really faced and I think it's not just me. A lot of other online shoppers might be facing this in their online journey.

    Band 6-7

    I love shopping online I think it's very time effective but at the same time it has its own downside and it's a hassle when the internet is down so the time or a problem that I So a problem that I had by shopping online was I was shopping for my friend for her birthday it was a very expensive perfume that I saved up for I was saving from a monthly salary just to give that special gift to her but unfortunately while I was trying to buy it from an online store my current went off there was a power cut in my area and I was not aware of it and my mobile data was not working as well so around the time of the payment there was this delay or some glitch that happened while transferring to my UPI and then my somehow money in my bag was debited and but you know the purchase didn't happen and I was panicking because I had to gift her this two days after and somehow thankfully within 24 hours my money was refunded and I was able to buy again online but then this time I was careful to make sure that I've recharged my phone and has full data in my plan so that even if the power goes off I still would be able to buy anything without this hassle so that was a very startling moment for me because I'm very easily anxious about very small thing even though it's solvable at the end but somehow things turn out well I gave the gift to her and she was

    Band 6-7

    Last month, I visited the Shopper's Stove near my neighborhood. I went in search of finding a fruit item named pear. The shop is huge and enormous and it really makes it inconvenient for the customers to actually manually maneuver around and find the items. I seeked the help of a professional assistant there to find me the section of fruits. After a lot of hassle, we finally managed to find the section at the corner of the store. Even though I ended up in the section of fruits, I still got the problem of finding the pear fruit that I wanted. However, the manager, the staff professional saw the immediate disappointment in my face and they reassured me that the fruit is not available in the market. However, due to my emergency, their profound nature of hospitality made them bring the manager who assured me that the fruits will be coming late afternoon that day. So in this way, they ensured that I did end up getting the fruits at the end of the day and this is how I struggled finding my item in the Shopper's Stove.

    Band 6-7

    This incident happened six months ago. I bought a festive kurti to wear for a friend's marriage. The problem that I faced was that the product I received from the company was not the same as given in the image description of the product that I had bought on the store. The product had a deep purple color, as the image showed online, however, the product I received had a more lavender hue to it and the fitting was also not proper and some of the finishing of the stitch was missing, where there were some loose threads as well. I immediately sent a complaint to the company asking for a return and refund for the money for showing poor marketing and also a wrong image description which can be misleading.

    Band 6-7

    Thank you for that question. A problem I encountered while shopping in a physical stock shopping location was that I could not pay the money that was supposed to be paid because my UPI, the scanner, was not working and this was a short sight of my own where I did not carry cash and that is admittedly a mistake that cost me a lot of energy and time. So the issue was that the data was not working at that point and my network was very weak and I tried multiple times to make it work to make sure the transaction went through but it was causing issues and what it did was it was making a line till now behind me full of impatient customers which is not a pleasant thing to go through. There was no plan B essentially from my side and I did not know what to do and I was looking around clueless trying to figure out a way to make this work. At the end of the day I had to rely on the goodwill of strangers who very kindly accepted to pay for me and said that I could pay them back once we were outside the store which is very lucky and an instance I will treasure forever but that taught me that I can never go out without a backup plan and I need to think these situations through and technology is not always reliable and sometimes old is gold. Old methods and conventional things will work and will save you when you are in a fix and you are in a big soup and you cannot utilize technology.

    Band 6-7

    A problem that I faced while shopping online happened recently, it happened while shopping in a famous site known as Amazon. It is popular nowadays because it offers many discounts for its customers and also it has all the products related to skincare, cosmetics, fashion, dresses, kitchen appliances, utensils and accessories and so on. So it happened recently while I was shopping for my sister, we ordered a few skincare products she needed and we needed it in emergency because she was leaving abroad in few days. So we took their fast delivery system and paid extra charges for fast delivery because she was leaving in 3-4 days. And we waited for the products, they show that they had shipped their products within one day, but further we didn't get any updates from them. We regularly contacted them, tried to contact their help desk and customer care, but no one responded. We were very frustrated because we had paid a lot of money for the fast delivery. And finally on the day she was leaving, their customer care contacted us back and admitted their mistake and they offered us a refund, which was a great relief for us, but my sister was really disappointed because she had to travel back without her skincare products she dreamed of.

    Band 6-7

    Last month I had to buy a charger for my mobile phone as my phone was not working and I forgot my charger somewhere in somebody's house. Then I searched it in an online website and there I came to know about a charger which was looking accurately like I had with my phone and so I decided to buy it through this online platform. But there are some problems which I faced during completing my purchase. Like I didn't get the right kind of charger, it doesn't look, it doesn't have the same wattage which my phone generally accesses. So after knowing all the reviews and all the features of the product then at last I came to know about the product and then I decided to buy a product. It was a tough thing, a challenging thing for me to complete the purchase because I never have done this kind of purchase earlier but in the end everything was going smoothly and I was able to complete the purchase and I received the product about two days ago and the product is working quite nicely, smoothly and I am totally satisfied with the product.
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