Bruce Hovland, Ripoff . Con Man : Home Improvement Source.

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johnsonlynnr
Country: United States
Bruce Hovland, Ripoff . Con Man : Home Improvement Source.

Bruce Hovland was run out of Naples Fl after bankrupting several businesses.

Bruce claims on his site
“operated several service related businesses in my career and know the importance of customer service.”

One of those businesses was a Boat Storage business where I had my boat. Without my being late on any payment ‘ Bruce filed for title to my boat (which is easy to do in Florida if you own a storage co.)  and sold it right before going out of business and leaving town.  He stole more than 50 thousand Dollars from just me..  He did this to many people before skipping town. He had no experience in construction or design when leaving Naples. He did my landscaping and took care of my boat.

After Bruce ran off owing a lot of people I talked to a mechanic that worked at his boat repair shop located within the storage area and he informed me it was common practice for Bruce to steal good parts off of boats in the storage and exchange them with bad parts keeping a thriving repair business on all sides. .

Bruce has been arrested 7 times in Florida.

He even ripped the graphic on his website from the
Johnny Bravo cartoon.

It took me a lot of years to find Mr. Hovland but now that I have I will share any info I have with you.


Bruce Hovland, founder of the Home Improvement Source. 800-526-2450
located at 30333 US 19 N. in Clearwater, Fl.


bruce@homeimprovementsource.net

Owner at Home Improvement Source
Tampa /St. Petersburg /Clearwater, Florida Area
Building

Comments

  • 0
    Andrew
    | 1 reply
    This is so untrue. The author is a scam artist himself and is copying and pasting this crap all over the place. He stored his boats at Bruce's facility got arrested and recently got out of prison. He is using the internet to get at Hovland. Dont believe any of this crap.
    • 0
      bruce hovland replies to Andrew
      whoever is reading this, please before you make judgement just see that many of these responses are by the same people. A positive result and then a negative result? This site is ridiculous
  • 0
    Andrew
    The persons real name is John, thats his first con in this post. Here is the true story about how all this got started. Bruce never stole anything from this man. He did legally attain his property after over 2 years of sitting on his lot. John spent over 8 years in jail once he was finally brought to justice. Please do not let this one man's lies sway you in any way.

    Here is the true story of what type of person John is and a large part of why he spent so much time in prison.

    http://news.cnet.com/Net-crime-begs-questions ... 3_3-202141.html
  • 0
    Dan
    | 1 reply
    This author is so full of it. I knew Bruce in Naples and this guy was a spoiled brat from Texas. Stole money from his dad and had to flee Naples after a Lucky Dog scam went bad. I sold cell phones right across the street from Bruce's boat yard and know the whole story.
    • 0
      bruce hovland replies to Dan
      it's so interesting how I get a good response than a bad response from the same person, it all depends on how they feel at the time
  • 0
    Danita
    | 2 replies
    I have worked for Bruce for many years. We have completed nearly 1600 remodeling projects. It pisses me off how some random guy can post junk all over the internet. Check out our customer review page to get the real stories!
    • 0
      Dan replies to Danita
      | 1 reply
      The customer reviews page was fabricated. I set there and made the entries for almost everyone.
      • 0
        bruce hovland replies to Dan
        you are so supportive until you got fired
    • 0
      Andrew
      | 3 replies
      All of the responses work or worked for Bruce. He is crooked, WATCH OUT!!!! You've been warned.
      • 0
        Cameron replies to Andrew
        Interesting you praised him on one note, got fired now you bash him... nice
        • 0
          bruce hovland replies to Andrew
          I'm sorry you're better for losing your job
        • 0
          Johnny P. replies to Andrew
          I worked for Bruce at Pro Tech Automotive Service back in the 90's. He left his partner Don Chiverton broke and homeless. He is a chronic alcoholic who walked out on his wife and kids. He stole my tools before he closed the auto shop.
      • 0
        Another Victim
        I also had this guy do some remodeling in my home. He was Impressive at first and I gave him the business. I regret it. He left the job half finished after he convinced me to pay the final payment. As soon as the check was cashed he was gone. I am living on a pension and my wife is sick which he knew about and now my work is half done and I cannot afford to finish it. I went to the Tampa Police with no results. I am 84 and my wife is 82 and we cannot afford this problem and it has bought a lot of stress on our lives. We believe in forgiveness but is hard everytime it rains..
      • 0
        Bruce is a scumbag
        I lost my deposit too. 3k for a roof that they never came back and did the work. Crazy. The FDLE needs to go after this guy for fraud.

        Sad in Tampa
      • 0
        Geoff
        Bruce sold me custom cabinets for 2 kitchens and two baths.  Seemed like a Nice guy but it turns out that he took short cuts and didn't paint ANY of,the cabinets properly and they began to crack and fade after a few months.  He came to the house and blamed my wife for getting them wet...they are kitchen and bath cabinets for goodness sakes.


        He was then rude, said his warranty was worthless and told us to pound sand.  We spent over $50,000 with him and now the cabinets look like crap and a new finish will be more than $10,000-20,000 unreal.

        This guy can't be trusted until he stands behind his work...been 4 years and all we got was the bird !
      • 0
        James Steinburg
        Hi. I was retired in Naples Florida and I hired Bruce Hovland to take my boat out of the water and store it for the winter.  At the time he owned a boat storage and repair business. He took the boat out of the water and brought it to his storage yard without incident.  Then he claimed it needed a lot of work on the  bottom which I agreed it could do. this boat is a 30ft sportfish and the last time I had a bottom job on it cost four thousand and I conveyed that to Bruce. He assured the that the cost would be similar.  He called me in New York and said that it was tougher then he thought and that it might go over budget. I asked him what he thought the final number would be and he said around six thousand and that would include the out drives.  I said sure that sounds high but if it needs to be done hen do it..  I did not hear from Bruce for many months and when winter came and it was time for me to go to Naples I started calling often to hear the status of my boat. That is when things started to go bad.  19k was the bill for the same bottom job that 2 years before cost 4k. I told him the was out of the question. It was half the value of the boat.. That is when he went from nice guy to scammer. He said if I did not pay him the full amount he would seize the boat. Which he did.  I spent that season trying to reason with him with no good result. That was the end of my boat. in the end he gained title to it under some obscure Florida law . He flat out stole my boat. I am to old to worry much about it, pushing 80 I can not handle this kind of stress which I am sure he was fully aware of.  I hope others read this before doing business with this bad man.
      • 0
        Bruce got me too
        Bruce Hovland is a liar and a cheat. Don't trust him or his company to do any work for you. You will be soryy if you do.
      • 0
        e
        Worst Project Planning and Customer Service that I have ever experienced!  Hire at your own risk!

        I did a total remodel.  The job was estimated at less than 3 months, it took about 6 mostly due to mismanagement, horrible planning, shoddy installations, and it seemed that 2/3 of the people in my house were subcontractors.  I hired the company on the premise that they would not subcontract any of the work, If you look at their website, in the "About Us" section you'll read the following:

        "We don’t use subcontractors at the Home Improvement Source, we have employees to perform all services"

        The sliding glass door that I contracted with The Home Improvement Source was installed by subcontractors and is leaking onto the newly installed hardwood floor and the damage is spreading.

        It's only been a few month since the installation.

        Customer Support Experience:
        I called the store, explained the issue and sent pictures and waited for the owner to respond, and waited, and waited.  I finally got tired of waiting and called.  The owner said he'd have someone here in a couple of weeks.  3 weeks pass, I reach out to him again, then I'm told they'd be out here soon.  I responded and asked for a clarification as to what "soon" meant in his vocabulary, the response was this, verbatim in a text message, keep in mind, this is about a month after I asked for the defect to be addressed:

        "It may be a while to get there, It was nothing to do with the installation you had water intrusion.  "That's not my fault (keep in mind, he hired the subcontractors to fabricate and install the sliding glass door) I did not install that door. The manufacturer rep is Alumaflo in St Petersburg, you could call them to check the installation of the door..."

        That's the kind of customer service you will receive if you do business with this man.  Once he has your money, the con is over.  It's been over 6 months since I called for the repairs due to the defective installation, I'm not holding my breath on this one, just making a trip to small claims, and based on court records, I won't be the first for this company, do your research.

        I wish I had done my research on this man instead of going by a recommendation that I later found out had a 2% commission.

        Proceed at your own risk.  You've been warned!

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