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Describe something you bought that you really wanted to return: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What you bought?
  • Why you wanted to return it?
  • What happened when you tried to return it?
  • And explain how you felt afterward.
Show all 294 answers

Cue 1:What you bought?

  • Begin by clearly stating the item you purchased and its significance to you.
  • Include details about where and when you bought it to set the context.

Example

I bought a pair of expensive wireless headphones from an online store during a sale. I had been wanting them for months because I love listening to music while commuting and exercising.

Cue 2:Why you wanted to return it?

  • Explain the specific reasons that led you to want to return the item.
  • Mention any expectations you had that were not met.

Example

After using the headphones for a few days, I realized that the sound quality was not as good as I had hoped. Additionally, they were uncomfortable to wear for long periods, which was disappointing since I had read many positive reviews.

Cue 3:What happened when you tried to return it?

  • Describe the process you went through to return the item.
  • Share any challenges or frustrations you faced during the return process.

Example

When I contacted customer service to initiate the return, I faced long wait times on the phone. They informed me that I needed to send the headphones back at my own expense, which I found frustrating. Eventually, I managed to send them back, but it took a lot longer than I expected.

Cue 4:And explain how you felt afterward.

  • Reflect on your emotions after the return process was completed.
  • Discuss any lessons learned from the experience.

Example

After finally returning the headphones, I felt relieved but also a bit frustrated with the whole experience. I learned to be more cautious when buying expensive items online and to read reviews more thoroughly before making a purchase.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, returning the headphones was a challenging experience, but it taught me valuable lessons about online shopping and managing expectations. I now feel more confident in making future purchases.

    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

    Using vague language can make your response unclear. Avoid general statements that do not provide specific details about the item you bought or your feelings about returning it.

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    Tip

    Be specific about the item, including its name and features. Describe your feelings and experiences in detail to create a clearer picture.

    2: Neglecting Emotional Impact

    Failing to express your emotions can make your answer less engaging. It's important to convey how the experience affected you personally.

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    Tip

    Share your feelings before and after the return process. Use descriptive language to express your emotions, such as frustration or relief.

    Ignoring the Return Process

    Not explaining what happened during the return process can leave your answer incomplete. Candidates often skip this crucial part, which can lead to a lack of depth.

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    Tip

    Detail the steps you took to return the item, including any challenges faced. This adds depth to your story and shows your problem-solving skills.

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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

    Personally, I feel like shopping is a therapy and nowadays we have the great options like online shopping but sometimes I choose online shopping over offline shopping as they have many options and it could be really very relevant and comfy when we sit at home and order any things by selecting the things appropriately. I had bought a smartwatch charger because I had lost one and when I bought it and I tried it on my smartwatch and unfortunately it was not working so I thought to return it back and due to some busy schedule I couldn't return it in 2-3 days but it delayed but finally I had returned it. The delivery partner who had to take the parcel back, he didn't approach me and I was unaware of the reason and I was in the loss. By this I can understand that online shopping could be a boon or a bane that is we can't trust over the agency sometimes or if you buy in any of the websites they could be fraud so before buying anything online we need to check the websites and reviews and many other things which will be relevant to be safety and to find the good products trustworthy ones so that you don't get fraud.

    Band 6-7

    I would love to share an experience about a thing that I bought recently and I wanted to return it right after I used it. The thing I bought is a pen which I gifted to my father for his birthday present. I really wanted to gift him a pen because he is a keen learner and he really wants to explore new things, learn new things, so I wanted to gift him a pen because it helps him to keep him inspired and motivated. I was awestruck when I saw this pen while I was shopping with my mother for my father's birthday present. I was wonderstruck while I saw it and my mother also liked it and I was keen to purchase that pen. For example, I was mesmerized by its beauty, its decoration and all the things. My mother told me never judge a book by its cover but I didn't hear her and I bought this pen. When I gifted it to my father as his birthday present, he tried the pen but it didn't work. I got to know that I was tricked by the shop owner. I learned that and I went near the shop owner. Moreover, he said that it's not working, you have used it and he blamed me for this reason and I was struck there. I couldn't come to the senses. It was all his doings but he blamed it on me. So I couldn't do much and I returned back to my home. I apologized to my father because it was his birthday present. So we should always remember the saying never judge a book by its cover and I thought of my mother's saying. So we should never judge a book by its cover. It's a lesson to me.

    Band 6-7

    A month ago I bought a bottle from this superstore which is really famous in my society and it looked really fancy and I just thought that it will be really good to serve the guest wine in that bottle but after I got home I realized that how I have had a lot of them and so the moment I tried to return it back to the company they denied and they refused to take it back so that was when it hit me hard to the heart that how I shouldn't be too materialistic or make decisions so impulsively that will make me regret my decision later so that's how you

    Band 6-7

    I recently bought a beautiful blue coloured gown for my sister's engagement. I ordered it from one of the online shopping sites and in the pictures when I ordered it looked so pretty that I thought this is a perfect gown to be worn during her engagement. But when I received the parcel, I realised the colour of the gown was completely different and it turned to be green which was absolutely not suiting my skin tone. And when I tried the gown, it was not fitting me right, giving me an inappropriate, uncomfortable feeling while I was wearing it. So I decided to return it and I placed a return order to return it back to the online shopping site. Although they had mentioned that within the 7 days of the order, you can return the product. But when I actually started returning, there were a lot of complications and they didn't accept my return request, because of which I had to keep the gown and my money got wasted. This was really a sad incident and I have already officially complained on the online portal site, although they haven't yet reverted me back regarding the mail and the message which I have sent to them about this product. I hope to get a revert mail from them soon.

    Band 6-7

    Shopping is the process of buying things, whether it can be through online means like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra or other things or we can purchase anything from offline markets or going to their desired shops and most of the people around the globe love shopping and today I would like to describe something that I bought that I really wanted to return. The thing was a laptop that I purchased in my class 9th and I vividly remember that it was a Intel i9 laptop which claimed to be gaming specific laptop that is made to play high resolution games without any lag or heating issue as it consisted of 16GB RAM, 4GB RAM of graphics card and it also has a 10th generation Intel Core CPU and other many additional features like in-depth cooling, water liquid cooling systems, heating, webnance and other much more. But the problem actually started on the first day of the purchase as when I bought it and I directly installed GTA 5th generation game in it and the game is very huge as it consists of more than 500GB and according to the game developers the laptop should run it very smoothly but however something wrong happened with the laptop as there was a manufacturing defect due to which the laptop cannot reach the peak performance it should deliver so the game started to lag and the frame rates per second started to drop and I directly contacted the shop dealer and they refused to return by saying that this defect does not exist.

    Band 6-7

    Recently I bought a pair of headphones from Amazon and I used it for couple of days but I was not satisfied with the kind of audio quality the headphones were providing me so I decided that I should return them and look for a different model or a different company. But when I tried to return it, the process led me to another process and it led me to another websites and just the cycle kept repeating. It was very frustrating to even think of trying to return it again because the process was very long and complicated. They asked me about the CA numbers, about the batch numbers, about the photo of the receipts and all those things and it was a lot of a headache to just return a single pair of headphones. It was very frustrating for me, moreover the headphones costed me 1200 rupees as well as some mental breakdown. So I really think that Amazon and the sellers should actually think about customers before updating their policies and while designing the route to return a particular object because it really affects the buyer's mind. I just feel they should be considerate about us and think twice before updating anything or designing the software.

    Band 6-7

    Well, to begin, I am an avid gamer. I love gaming and since gaming requires a certain level of hardware that can sustain heavy gaming, it is important that I had the adequate systems in place. So, to begin with, I started ordering keyboards and mouse and other peripherals that were required. Of those that I ordered, one of them was a mouse which was built by an Indian company called Antisports. Having already bought several of their orders before, I thought this would turn out to be a really amazing experience, just like I have had previously. So, when the mouse arrived, design-wise, it looked pretty amazing. But, as I started using it, I realized that there was an awkward sound coming out of the mouse. Upon further inspection, I realized that there was a small piece which had got loose, maybe during the transportation or maybe upon arrival. So, I decided to do some reverse engineering, which is to say that I started opening up the mouse to see what the problem was. And, upon opening the mouse, I saw a small piece of iron that was put inside it. At first, I thought it was just a basic human error. But, after doing some research online and looking at the different feedbacks that the other customers had to offer, I realized that this was done on purpose so as to make the mouse look heavier. But, I really did not like it because this would have caused other damages to the mouse itself. And, had it been beyond the warranty period, it would have caused some trouble for me.

    Band 6-7

    In this day and age of fast-paced consumerism, we are surrounded with advertisements of so many objects. No. No, no, no. No. In this day and age of fast-paced consumerism, we are surrounded by advertisements of so many objects. In this day and age of fast-paced consumerism, we are surrounded by advertisements of so many objects. In this day and age of fast-paced consumerism, we are surrounded by advertisements of so many objects. In this day and age of fast-paced consumerism, we are surrounded by advertisements of so many objects. We are surrounded by a catena of products which advertisers show us that we need to attain to live a more comfortable life. Clever advertising makes us feel as if we really need to purchase the products that are being shown to us. Being somebody who is very interested in collecting various footwear having different designs, I ended up purchasing a footwear from a company that displayed a sale on those items. Once I purchased that footwear, I was extremely happy about it since I had been able to attain that product at minimal cost. However, once I ended up wearing it, it took only a few days for the entire footwear to break and disintegrate. However, by that point in time, the return policy period had already passed and therefore I was never able to actually return the product. Even though I hadn't spent a lot of money on buying it, this made me question my choices as an intelligent consumer and taught me the invaluable lesson that just because something looks nice and is being offered at a relatively lesser and cheaper price, it does not mean that I really need that product and I should possibly test it for deficiencies before investing in it.

    Band 6-7

    I recently bought a BMI Weight Calculator, Weight Measurer, it's basically a weight measuring scale including BMI, it calculates BMI through an app, so I bought it in Amazon, it cost me around 2000, I checked the reviews, it had very good reviews, it had around 4.5 out of 5, but when I bought it, when it arrived at my home, I had few issues when I was testing it, when I was trying to measure my weight, it showed good, it showed me, it was working fine, but when I was calculating BMI, it is not operating properly, the app was not showing results, it is continuously showing errors, so I wanted to return it, but the return date was so close, and I was out of station, still I tried to submit request for the return, and after a week, a delivery guy came to take the product, and I got it replaced, so I was at the same time, he gave me some water too, now it is working well, may be there was a blue tooth issue or some other issue with the previous order I got, but now it is working

    Band 6-7

    so there were these headphones which I really wanted and I asked my parents to get them for me but they said that the headphones were not required so I did not get them after a few days I just saw an ad which told me that you can buy these headphones for just 700 rupees which was 70% discount from the original price so I was very happy and excited about it so I ordered those and paid the money without telling my parents after about seven days the delivery came in I took the headphones and carefully without letting my parents know I opened them but it was surprising that the headphones are not working I tried to make them work in many ways but still they did not work they were wired headphones and I think the the part which joins the mobile and the cable was not working so I felt very bad after that I felt that I should have invested the money instead of buying such a dirty product I should have known better and I thought that I will now tell my parents about the problem that happened but my parents were really understanding and they did not say anything they just said that if something is too good to be true then that thing is mostly...
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