What prompt writes a good AI complaint letter?
A good complaint letter prompt gives the model five facts, the fix you want and a deadline, and tells it not to cite any law. The FTC's sample complaint letter asks for the same parts, and adds one rule on tone: "Be polite and reasonable in your letter." Fill the brackets and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini:
```
Write a complaint letter to [company] from me, a customer.
What I bought: [product or service], [price], on [date], from [store, website or branch].
Reference: [ORDER NUMBER] (leave this placeholder, I will fill it in).
What went wrong: [two or three plain sentences, with dates].
What I already did: [e.g. called on 3 October, was told someone would call back, nobody did].
The fix I want: [refund of $X / replacement / repair / credit / an apology and a corrected bill].
Deadline: ask for a written reply by [date, e.g. 14 days from today].
Enclosures: [receipt, photos, emails].
Rules: firm and polite. Under 250 words. Open with what I bought and when, then the problem, then the fix. Do not threaten. Do not exaggerate. Do not cite any law, regulation, court case or consumer right by name; I will add one myself if I have checked it. End with how to reach me and the list of enclosures.
```
Two lines in that prompt do most of the work. The placeholder keeps your real account number out of the chat. The no law rule is there because models invent legal citations, and the people who read complaints for a living have started saying so in public.
Run the same prompt in two models if you have them, and keep the draft that sticks to your dates and amounts. If a sentence says "I am deeply disappointed" and nothing else, cut it. A letter that states the order, the date and the fix gets read by the person who can say yes.
How long does a company have to answer a complaint?
A US bank or card issuer has 15 to 90 days to answer, depending on which federal rule your complaint falls under, and an ordinary shop has no federal clock at all. We lined up the three clocks from the FTC and the CFPB, read on 25 October 2026. For a shop, the FTC's sample letter tells you to set the date yourself: "Say how long you'll wait for the business to answer you." The Fair Credit Billing Act and the CFPB's complaint process set real ones:
| US rule, as of October 2026 | Covers | Your deadline | The company's deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| FTC sample complaint letter | Any shop, service or seller | None set | None set; the FTC says "Pick a date that gives the business time to act" |
| Fair Credit Billing Act, per the FTC | Billing errors on a credit card | Your letter must reach the issuer "within 60 days after the first bill with the error was sent to you" | Acknowledge in writing within 30 days; resolve within 90 days |
| CFPB complaint process | Banks, lenders, card issuers, credit reports, debt collectors | None set | "Companies generally respond in 15 days"; a final response in 60 days when the company says it needs longer |
The card row is the one people miss. The FTC's card dispute page says the letter goes to the address the issuer lists for billing inquiries, not the one for payments, and it suggests certified mail with a return receipt. A phone call to the issuer doesn't start that 30 day clock. A letter does.
The UK runs on weeks. The Financial Ombudsman Service says "For most complaints, a business has up to 8 weeks to consider a complaint", but only 15 days for complaints about payment services, fraud and scams. After a final response you have 6 months to take it to the ombudsman.
AI complaint letter examples: 8 situations filled in
Each row is the part of the prompt only you can write. Paste the facts into the brackets above, keep the fix and the deadline, and the model does the rest. The situations and numbers are written for this page to show the pattern; they aren't real customers or model output.
| Situation | Facts to paste | The fix to ask for | Deadline line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Faulty product, refund refused | Blender, $89, bought 2 September online; motor stopped on 20 September; store offered credit only | A full refund to the original card | A written reply within 14 days |
| 2. Order never arrived | Jacket, $120, ordered 1 October; tracking shows delivered 6 October; nothing at the door; photo of the porch attached | A replacement or a refund | A reply within 10 days |
| 3. Credit card billing error | Charged $240 twice by the same hotel on the 15 September statement; one stay | Remove the duplicate $240 charge | Sent to the billing inquiries address, within 60 days of the statement |
| 4. Charged after cancelling | Streaming plan cancelled 1 August, confirmation email attached; charged $15.99 on 1 September and 1 October | Refund both charges and confirm the account is closed | A reply within 14 days |
| 5. Bank or lender problem | Late fee of $35 applied on 12 October although the payment cleared on 10 October; bank statement attached | Reverse the fee | A reply within 15 days, then a CFPB complaint |
| 6. Contractor did poor work | Bathroom tiling, $1,800, finished 30 August; grout cracked within three weeks; photos attached | Come back and redo the grout at no charge | A date for the visit within 14 days |
| 7. Poor service, no refund wanted | Anniversary dinner on 4 October; 50 minute wait after booking; main course arrived cold | An acknowledgement and what will change | A reply within 14 days |
| 8. Landlord repair | Boiler out since 2 October; reported by text on 2 and 9 October; no visit | A repair date | A repair within the time your lease or local law sets |
Row 5 sets 15 days on purpose. That's the window the CFPB says companies generally answer in, so the bank already works to it. Row 8 has its own page, with a prompt built around your lease's repair clause: AI letter to a landlord for repairs. If the complaint is a medical bill, using AI to dispute medical bills checks the itemized bill against your explanation of benefits first.
What does a finished complaint letter look like?
A finished complaint letter is about 200 words long and every sentence carries a date, an amount or a request. Here's row 1 written out the way the prompt asks for it. We wrote it for this page to show the shape:
```
[Your name]
[Your address]
[Date]
Customer Relations
[Company name and address]
Re: Order [ORDER NUMBER], blender, $89
Dear Customer Relations,
On 2 September I bought a [model] blender for $89 from your website, order [ORDER NUMBER]. On 20 September the motor stopped while blending soup and it has not worked since.
I called your helpline on 23 September. The agent offered store credit only. I would like a full refund of $89 to the card I paid with, because the blender failed within three weeks of normal use.
I have enclosed a copy of the order confirmation and a photo of the serial number plate. I can return the blender at your cost if you need it.
Please reply in writing by [date 14 days from today]. If I have not heard from you by then, I will take the complaint to my state attorney general's consumer protection office.
You can reach me at [email or phone].
Yours sincerely,
[Your name]
Enclosures: order confirmation, photo of serial number plate
```
Notice what isn't there. There's no law cited, no adjective about how upset you are, and nothing the store could call a threat. The next step in the last paragraph is one the FTC names itself, the state attorney general, and it's stated as a plan, not a threat.
Can you use ChatGPT to write a complaint letter?
Yes, and two regulators have started describing AI written complaints in their own reports. The CFPB received 6.6 million complaints in 2025, up from 3,187,900 in 2024 and about 1,657,600 in 2023. Almost all of that growth came from credit reporting complaints. Its 2025 Consumer Response Annual Report, published 31 March 2026, says the rise coincides with "large language models and autonomous software systems (“AI Agents”) that empower bad actors to flood the system with duplicative and spurious submissions."
The bureau still sent more than 5.9 million complaints on to companies, and companies gave a timely response to more than 99% of them. A real complaint still gets answered. A letter that reads like one of a thousand copies has to work harder to look real, though, and your dates and order number are what make it look real.
The UK ombudsman put numbers on the other risk. Marc Harris, its chief operating officer, wrote on 27 March 2026 that "up to a third of responses to our initial assessments appeared to have been generated or heavily assisted by AI" in a small sample. He listed the failure he sees: "hallucinations' which include fabricated laws, misquoted regulations or invented past decisions." Long AI complaints with errors, he wrote, "extend response times." That's why the prompt above bans citations. Add a law back only after you've opened the official page that states it.
What should you keep out of the chat?
Keep account numbers, card numbers, passwords and anything a stranger could use to get into your account out of the chat. The model doesn't need them to write the letter. Type a placeholder like [ORDER NUMBER] and fill it in after you paste the draft into your email or document.
Names and dates are usually fine, since the letter is going to the company anyway. Medical details, your partner's finances and screenshots of whole account pages aren't. What never to paste into AI goes through where a pasted secret actually ends up.
Where do you send the complaint if the company ignores it?
If the deadline passes, send the same letter to the body that covers the company, with the date you first wrote. For a shop or a service, the FTC points you to your state attorney general and your state or local consumer protection office, and it takes reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. It's honest about what a report does: "The FTC doesn't resolve individual reports," though it says a report can help start an investigation.
Banks, lenders, card issuers and debt collectors go to the CFPB, which forwards the complaint to the company and tells you when it has answered. In the UK, a bank, insurer or lender that misses the 8 week mark goes to the Financial Ombudsman, and you don't have to wait for a final response once the time limit has passed.
Whizi, which publishes this page, can hand the draft back as a real Word file. Ask for "the letter as a .docx" on the website and the answer comes with a file card that downloads a .docx, as described in creating Word and Excel files. On Pro, side by side model chats put two drafts next to each other so you can keep the plainer one. It won't send the letter or track the deadline for you.
Frequently asked questions
Is it okay to use AI to write a complaint letter?
Yes. The FTC's sample letter doesn't mention AI at all, and the CFPB still forwarded more than 5.9 million complaints to companies in 2025. What regulators object to is invented law and copies of the same complaint. Give the model your own dates and amounts, ban legal citations, and read every line before you sign it. The same habits work for any email you send: AI for email writing.
How do you start a complaint letter?
Start with what you bought, when and the order number, in one sentence: "On 2 September I bought a blender for $89 from your website, order 12345." The problem comes second and the fix you want third. Leave the feelings for the last line, or out altogether.
Should I put my account number into ChatGPT?
No. Use a placeholder such as [ACCOUNT NUMBER] in the prompt and type the real number into the final letter yourself. The model writes the same letter either way, and the number never sits in your chat history. What never to paste into AI covers the rest of that list.
How do I complain about an AI subscription charge?
Write to the company first with the cancellation date and the charge, then dispute it with your card issuer if it doesn't refund. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, your letter must reach the issuer within 60 days of the first bill with the error. To stop the next charge, remove your card from ChatGPT first.
