When electronic signatures show up on documents you didn’t sign

Customers of Bonita Springs AC company allege signature fraud

When the headquarters of Bruno Total Home Performance was raided by the Cape Coral Police Department in January, it didn’t come as a surprise to several former customers of the company. 

The Florida Attorney General also has an active criminal investigation into the company as well as an active consumer civil investigation.

Six former customers with six unique stories of dissatisfaction shared their story with WINK News. 

They describe everything from continued system malfunctions, high pressure sales pitches, to alleged fraud and forgery. 

One common thread among all of them: Bruno technicians asked them to sign electronically on a tablet or phone. 

Debi Giardello, a realtor from Naples, said she was told she was signing an agreement to find out if she qualified for a tax program.

Later, she said she found that signature placed on a pricing estimate that she had never seen. 

“They pasted it [my signature]. They had to a paste it on the document,” said Giardello. 

Lance Henderson, a former corrections officer from Cape Coral, said he was asked to sign a tablet to give a technician permission to inspect his current air conditioning system.

Henderson later discovered that signature on documents used by someone at Bruno to sign him up for financing without his permission. He also pointed out another financing document where he feels his signature was forged altogether. 

“It looked like they had someone practice [signing my name],” Henderson said. 

A defense attorney representing the owner of Bruno Total Home Performance said there is absolutely no evidence of forgery at the company. 

Sawyer Smith allowed WINK News to ask a few questions of Louis Bruno while he was present. 

“It would be a completely different allegation if it wasn’t so fake news if we signed a contract and the customer got no product, but they let 140 hours worth of work occur in their residence. So regardless of what they were signing, they were going to contract,” said Bruno when asked if someone at his company was placing signatures onto documents that customers never saw. 

Bruno and Smith claim there is no criminal wrongdoing at the company.  

The Florida Attorney General’s office received 120 complaints about the company between January 2018 and February 2019. Most of the complaints are heavily redacted due to the active investigations. 

Smith said anyone with an issue with the company is welcome to contact him directly, so they can look into the issue. 

WINK News provided Smith with names and allegations from several Bruno customers but so far he’s not provided a specific response. 

“My team is addressing the concerns,” he wrote in an email to WINK News.