Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Dowdy's Automotive Service's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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Dowdy's Automotive Service has 6 locations, listed below.

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  Dowdy's Automotive Service

  3183 S Federal Way Boise, ID 83705-5213

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  Dowdy's Automotive Service

  1821 SE 4th Ave Ontario, OR 97914

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  Dowdy's Automotive Service

  6015 W Overland Rd # 104 Boise, ID 83709

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  Dowdy's Automotive Service

  1890 S Meridian Rd Meridian, ID 83642-9026

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  Dowdy's Automotive Service

  4850 N Elsinore Ave Meridian, ID 83642

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/29/2025

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I took my car to be fixed with a very clear problem and that was, one of my injectors were not working but they misdgnosed my car and replaced spark plugs and coils when the it was an injector that needed replacing. They charged me $1465 but my car came back with the same issue and they kept telling me the next thing hat needed to be fixed according to their machine. I then took my car to another mechanic who fixed the car and charged me less than $400. But they wanted me to pay another $1000 for the next best diagnostic.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/16/2025

  Be advised that much of the following is taken verbatim from our public ****** response to a review left by the customer in question.  It is our feeling that the public response we already provided should suffice to explain our side of events.  I have also included direct email communication between our Operations Manager and the Service Writer who helped the customer and the person who acted as the intermediary during the entire process.  ******** herself has communicated more with the BBB than she has with ******* Automotive both before, during and after the repairs were conducted.  As you will see below, the customer and their intermediary had already brought up a refund and after explaining the situation a refund was given that was mutually agreed upon.  Asking for a full refund after the fact is not only disingenuous in regard to the efforts we already made to resolve their complaint but also completely disregards the fact that the work we performed corrected or fixed a portion of the issues her vehicle had when it was brought to our shop.  Thank you very much for your consideration in this matter.

  FROM OUR ****** RESPONSE:

  "********, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We understand your frustration that the initial problem wasn't fully resolved after your first visit, and we sincerely regret the difficult situation this caused, especially knowing you're a student.
  
  When your vehicle came in, it presented with multiple diagnostic codes indicating misfires on different cylinders and a specific circuit malfunction for cylinder 1. Based on these codes and technical service bulletins, our technician recommended a multi-step approach, initially suggesting replacement of plugs, specific coils, and fuel injectors, while also noting the possibility of deeper issues if these steps weren't successful.
  
  We discussed these findings and potential costs with you and the person you enlisted to represent you (we will not mention their name here out of respect to their privacy), explaining that the recommended work might only be a starting point. After our conversation, through your representative, you opted to proceed with the tune-up, replacement coils, and an intensive fuel system cleaning first, understanding that injector replacement might still be necessary if this didn't resolve the issue.
  
  Unfortunately, despite performing the agreed-upon work, the cylinder 1 misfire code persisted. Although the work we performed did resolve the other misfire issues and associated codes as we expected it would. We communicated this outcome and explained that replacing the injector(s), as initially suspected, would be the required next step.
  
  ********, we stand by our diagnostic process and our recommendation to replace all injectors based on the codes and technical data, aiming for a comprehensive and lasting repair rather than potentially addressing symptoms individually. We understand you found a different solution elsewhere, but our goal was to provide a thorough diagnosis and clear options based on the complex symptoms presented.

  We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us and, while we may not agree with the entirety of your statement, we will endeavor to learn from this experience and pass on that knowledge for the benefit of our valued customers who we have been serving faithfully for close to 40 years."

   

  FROM OUR SERVICE WRITER:

  "I called *** (HER INTERMEDIARY) on 04/29/25 and discussed how the repairs we performed were a necessary step in what was a multiple step repair process the vehicle needed, and that even though the other shop replaced one fuel injector we still stand behind our recommendation to replace all four in the hopes of not having to go back and re perform this repair, this is also the course of action recommended on our technical bulletins we are reading for this fix. He explained they wanted around $300 refunded to them so they feel better, we discussed it and came to an agreement that I would refund them the price of the fuel injection service since it was not the initial service we had hoped to perform. The dollar amount for this was $132.48. That is where we left off with ***, as far as actually talking with ******** the customer who left the review she did not say a single word to me during the duration of this repair, so Im unsure if what I was saying got lost in translation, or what the situation is, but by the way the phone call went with *** on 04/29/25 I had figured we had resolved any issues."