Return a faulty product to a shop assistant
You bought a pair of wireless earbuds two days ago, but the left one will not charge. You have walked back into the store with the earbuds, the box, and your receipt to ask for a replacement or a refund. A shop assistant is at the service counter.
A beginner-level session of about 6 minutes.
One earbud works. That single fact shapes the whole conversation, because nothing on the counter looks broken: the right one charges, and you are the only source of information about the left. Describing a thing that fails to happen is oddly hard in a second language — the sentence needs a negative, a timeframe and a repeated attempt at once, and the vague version invites questions about how you have been charging them rather than a decision. There is also the question of what you are asking for. Repair, replacement, exchange and refund are four different outcomes, and the assistant will act on whichever word you use. It is common to describe the fault well and then leave that word out, at which point the store's default fills the gap. If you were asked right now which of the four you want, what would you say?
Angles worth taking
- Offer to demonstrate it there; letting the assistant watch the left one fail to charge settles more than explaining it does.
- The assistant will likely test the working earbud first, which proves nothing about the other one — saying so early saves minutes.
- Ask how long a repair would take before you refuse it; the answer is usually a stronger argument than a flat refusal.
- If the counter gets interrupted mid-sentence, stop and start that sentence again, because a half-heard complaint gets a half-answer.
- If a replacement is agreed, ask whether it comes from stock today or has to be ordered, before you leave.
Who is in the room
You play
A customer returning a faulty product
You speak with
A busy but not unfriendly shop assistant at an electronics store, who follows store policy and will first try to offer a repair before agreeing to a replacement or refund
Phrases to reach for
These are shown to you before the session starts. They are what you are asked to use, not a list the scorer is checking off.
Ready to speak?
Free to start. You need a TalkDrill account to speak — reading this page does not.
Browse all roleplay scenariosThe format
Modes
Learn (guided) · Mock (exam-real)
How a roleplay session works
Read your brief
Your role, the situation, and what a good outcome looks like. The counterpart has their own brief, and you do not get to read it.
Open the conversation
You speak first in most scenarios. How you open sets what you can ask for later, which is most of the exercise.
Handle the turn
Somewhere in the middle it stops going your way — a refusal, a counter-offer, a rebuttal you did not prepare for. That moment is the scenario.
Read the report
Outcome, the phrases you used and the ones you missed, fluency and clarity, and the specific line worth rewriting.
What you're scored on
Across every roleplay, the report looks at the same four things — because they are what makes a real conversation work or fail.
Calmly explain the fault and get a replacement or a refund — be polite but firm, and do not back down just because the assistant pushes back.
Task outcome
Whether you got what the brief asked for: the refund, the extension, the concession, the point conceded.
Appropriacy
Whether the register fits. A complaint that is too soft gets nothing; the same complaint too hard gets a manager and no refund.
Recovery
What you do with the unexpected turn — repair, rephrase, push back, or stall. This is where most of the marks move.
Delivery
Fluency, pronunciation and pace, judged in conversation rather than in a prepared monologue.
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