Benfonte’s Custom Furniture

I went to have a headboard made by this man just last week. Against my better judgement, I went ahead and had him do it and probably had the single worst, most horrific experience of my life with this guy. This place, this man are APPALLING and should be shut down by the health department. I think George Benfonte might even be senile.
First of all, yes he is cheap — dirt cheap. And I was so badly beyond a budget I had set to do my guest bedroom, that I went ahead with it. Anyone else would have charged more than double.
When I walked in there the first time, I almost ran right out and I wish I had. The old man at the desk looked like he might be dead and the place reeked so badly of smoke it was almost unbearable. I spoke with him and got prices and he went on and on about how long he had been in the business, and his fathers and grandfathers before him, yada yada yada. So I took a chance, i came back with a headboard to be reupholstered and some fabric. I needed a very simple look, straight lines, no tufting. When it was brought home to me, I was in UTTER SHOCK. Where do I begin. Without exaggeration, if I had watched a YouTube video of how to do this job and set out to do it myself, it would have been exactly the result I got… maybe his job was a bit worse. It was all lumpy and bumpy and crooked and they had done little more than stretch the fabric over the skeleton of the headboard. The fabric had a TEAR in it right on the front and a huge black mark right in the middle of the headboard.
But this was not the worst part! And this is really where I am so angry at myself… the headboard was the worst smelling thing I have EVER taken a whiff of in my life (with the exception of rotting flesh I once smelled many years ago). Not only was the smell of 30 years of stale smoke completely embedded in the fabric and whatever little bit of foam they had put inside, but it smelled of utter FILTH on top of that. Just like it does in his place. This man is one of the filthiest human beings I have ever seen in my life — he is dirty from head to toe and his shop has probably never been cleaned in all the years he has been there. It smells of smoke and URINE and disgustingness.
I never brought the headboard into my house and after leaving it for 2 nights outside on my patio, the entire patio smelled of it. I called him and told him how disappointed I was, that the headboard was disgusting, plus it was RIPPED, MARKED and looked like it had been made by a 3 year old. He said he had never been told this in his career (I knew he would say that). I insisted he could keep the headboard and I get my money back. He told me to bring it back and would give me the money, they told me to never come there again and slammed the phone in my face.
We dropped the headboard off and George Benfonte wanted to keep the headboard and would only give me half the money back. I took it — there is nothing else that can be done with this piece of furniture and God knows it must be infested with something anyways. I really believe this man, who is probably about to kick the bucket at any moment, is completely senile and should be shut down.