File a Complaint with the Massachusetts Attorney General

To file a complaint with the Massachusetts Attorney General, submit a written complaint to the Consumer Advocacy & Response Division (CARD), either through the online form on mass.gov or by mailing a printed form to One Ashburton Place, 18th Floor, Boston, MA 02108. The process is free. CARD may try to mediate your dispute with the business, and it uses the complaints it receives to identify broader patterns of misconduct across the Commonwealth.¹

What the AG’s Office Will Take a Complaint About

CARD handles a wide range of consumer problems. The most common include defective products, car sales and financing, auto repossession, debt collection, mortgage servicing and loan modifications, home improvement contracts, business closures, utility billing disputes, and shutoffs of unregulated utilities. The office also fields complaints about issues that disproportionately affect immigrants, veterans, homeless individuals, and elderly residents.¹

You can use the same office to report anti-competitive mergers, price-fixing agreements, and other illegal business practices.¹

Most consumer complaints fall under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A, which makes unfair or deceptive business practices illegal in any trade or commerce.

What to Gather Before You File

Pull your paperwork together before you open the form. You’ll want:

Your full name, mailing address, phone number, and email.
The exact name of the company or individual you’re complaining about, with their address and any contact information you have.
A factual description of what happened, with dates, the sequence of events, and how you were harmed.
Supporting documents: contracts, receipts, emails, text messages, advertisements, repair orders, photographs, or anything else that backs up your account.

The more specific you are up front, the easier it is for CARD staff to evaluate the complaint and decide whether mediation or further action makes sense. If a key document is missing, file anyway and note what you’re still trying to obtain.

How to File

Online

The fastest route is CARD’s online portal on mass.gov. The form walks you through each required field, and you can attach supporting documents electronically.¹

By Mail

If you prefer paper, print the complaint form from the AG’s website, fill it out, and mail it with copies of your supporting documents to:

Office of the Attorney General
Consumer Advocacy & Response Division
One Ashburton Place, 18th Floor
Boston, MA 02108¹

Keep copies of everything you send. The office requires complaints in writing and does not accept them over the phone. If you have questions about the process or want a complaint form mailed to you, call the Consumer Hotline at (617) 727-8400.²

What Happens After You File

Once your complaint is in, the AG’s Public Inquiry & Assistance Center reviews it and picks a path. In many cases, the office will offer free, voluntary mediation between you and the business, with a trained mediator helping both sides try to reach an agreement without court.³

Depending on the nature of your complaint, the office may refer you to a Local Consumer Program or a Face-to-Face Mediation Program instead. These are part of a statewide network that provides consumer education, resources, and mediation services, and Face-to-Face programs handle a broader set of disputes, including landlord-tenant issues.³

The AG’s office does not act as your personal attorney and cannot give you legal advice. Not every complaint ends up individually mediated, but every one still feeds into the data the office uses to spot patterns and trigger broader enforcement. Expect about a month for your complaint to appear in the AG’s publicly available complaint database.¹

If Mediation Doesn’t Work and You Want to Sue

Filing a complaint with the AG is not the same as filing a lawsuit, and the AG will not sue the business on your behalf. If mediation fails and you decide to bring your own Chapter 93A claim, Massachusetts law requires you to send a written demand letter to the business at least 30 days before you file suit.⁴

The demand letter has to identify you as the claimant, describe the unfair or deceptive practice, and explain the injury you suffered. Skipping this step can get your case dismissed. The 30-day window also lets the business make a written settlement offer; if that offer is reasonable and you reject it, it can later cap what you recover in court, while a refusal or bad-faith response can open the door to enhanced damages. The requirement does not apply if you’re filing a counterclaim or cross-claim, or if the business has no office or assets in Massachusetts.⁴

When a Federal Agency Is the Better Fit

Some disputes belong with a federal agency rather than the state AG. If your problem involves a financial product like a credit card, mortgage, student loan, auto loan, or credit report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accepts complaints and forwards them to the company for a response.⁵

For fraud or deceptive practices that cross state lines or affect consumers nationwide, the Federal Trade Commission collects reports that feed enforcement cases against large-scale scams.⁶

Filing federally doesn’t stop you from filing with the Massachusetts AG too. When a problem touches both state and federal jurisdiction, doing both can be worthwhile: the state complaint feeds Massachusetts enforcement patterns, and the federal report contributes to national data that agencies use to prioritize investigations.

1
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. File a Consumer Complaint
2
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Get Consumer Support
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OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL. Consumer Complaints and Mediation Services
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General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A, Section 9
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Consumer Complaint Database
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Federal Trade Commission. A Brief Overview of the Federal Trade Commission’s Investigative, Law Enforcement, and Rulemaking Authority