An FDACS auto-repair complaint should identify the business and transaction, explain what you authorized, attach the records supporting the disputed point and state the response you want. Keep originals and review what may become public before filing. The department’s repair complaint form warns that both the form and attachments may be open to public inspection.

This guide serves Orlando-area drivers using Florida’s statewide process. Filing a complaint does not itself establish wrongdoing, guarantee a refund or replace advice about a legal deadline.

Choose the filing route—and read its own disclosures

The current FDACS online intake starts with the complaint subject and asks about anonymity and whether you want the department to contact the business. It offers sign-in or sign-up for future tracking. Those initial choices are not a promise that the whole submission is confidential or that every later step works without an account. Follow the notices displayed in the actual flow.

FDACS also serves a two-page motor-vehicle repair form, footer revision 08/19. It directs completed forms to FDACS Division of Consumer Services, Mediation & Enforcement, 2005 Apalachee Parkway, Tallahassee, FL 32399-6500. For current filing assistance or to confirm the mail route before sending it, the consumer page lists 1-800-435-7352, or 850-410-3800 for out-of-state residents.

We read the online entry screen without submitting information. Later conditional fields and its current confirmation format were not verified; do not expect the old portal’s “OCN” label solely because our previous article described it.

Prepare a compact attachment packet

Use one business per paper complaint, as the form instructs. LSL’s preparation checklist follows the form’s actual questions:

  • Parties and vehicle: your contact details, the business identity and location, vehicle year/make/type, repair date and type of repair.
  • Estimate evidence: the signed option and estimate you received, or a clear statement that you did not receive a copy. Attach what exists; do not recreate a missing signed document.
  • Authorization evidence: original requested work, proposed changes and the retained approval or refusal. Match each disputed invoice line to the relevant message or document.
  • Amounts and requested response: record money paid separately from the refund/restitution requested. Explain any disputed amount and arithmetic rather than using the same total for every field.
  • Business response: the request you already made and any response, with dates. Keep allegations, documented facts and the remedy you want distinct.

The form also asks whether an attorney has been retained or suit filed and provides space for a narrative. This checklist is preparation, not a substitute for completing the current form.

Turn the documents into a readable complaint

This bracketed example is LSL’s writing aid—not a real customer’s allegation:

On [date], I requested [work]. Attachment A is [the estimate or other intake record]. I approved [specific scope/amount] by [actual method] on [date]. Attachment B shows [the change request and response]. The invoice in Attachment C includes [disputed item/amount], which I question because [document-supported reason]. I paid [amount]. I asked the business for [response] on [date]; its response was [attach or state none received]. I request [specific remedy and amount, if any].

If you cannot support a statement, label the uncertainty instead of assigning a motive or asserting that work was never performed. For a missing estimate or invoice, section 559.915 provides customer access for inspection/copying for at least 12 months, with a possible reasonable copying charge. That record-access period is not a deadline for every possible legal claim.

Use the separate estimate calculation and invoice guide to understand the underlying record, and the two-system lookup if the business identity is unclear.

Copies, public records and what FDACS can do

The paper form says to send copies rather than originals. Its signature acknowledgment says the business will receive a copy of the complaint and authorizes the department’s mediation, investigation or enforcement work. That is stronger and more specific than saying documents “might be shared.” Read that acknowledgment before signing; do not assume the online contact-business choice overrides the paper form. Both pages of FDACS-10903

Exclude unrelated payment-card details and other unnecessary sensitive material from your attachments. Redaction is not a guarantee of confidentiality or a reason to omit required information. Ask FDACS how to handle material you are unsure should be included.

The paper form and online entry page say FDACS cannot require a business to repair, replace or refund. The department may attempt mediation; the form also says it does not give legal advice or take legal action for you. Preserve whatever receipt and correspondence the actual filing route provides without treating receipt as a finding in your favor.

Review and limits

LSL read the complete paper form, current online entry screen, consumer guidance and relevant repair-record law on September 13, 2026. We created the attachment checklist and narrative aid; no complaint, personal information or business allegation was submitted. The guide does not claim an interview, successful mediation, tested mailing route or independently inspected repair.