Local Mom Loses Out With Affordable Furniture Closing

Living paycheck to paycheck, a single mom with a young son makes her final payment on a bedroom set from Affordable Furniture in Brandon, only to find the store has closed its doors due to the poor economy.

That's the story related by Shekia McNeely, who said she went to the store Thursday, Jan. 31, at 1076 East Brandon Blvd., only to find the doors locked, the store empty, and a sign on the door saying the store was out of business.

She said she called the numbers numerous times, in hopes to recover the $800 she paid over more than a year's time to purchase what would become her only pieces of furniture, but nobody answered.

"I felt I had something accomplished, and I was looking forward to having furniture, and now I have nothing," said McNeely, who "works in the hospital, as a sterilizing processing tech."

"It's hard, very hard," she added. "I'm trying to work as much overtime as I can and I wanted to do was to get some furniture in my place. And now this is a setback and it hurts. It really does."

According to McNeely, she is the sole provider for her three-year-old son. 

She said she had been making payments on a bedroom set, only to be told that it was discontinued, but that she could come in and look for another set.

"The man who was supposed to contact me after I made my last payment never got in contact with me about the situation, about whether he was going to refund my money or was I going to get another set," McNeely said in a phone interview Thursday. "I went there today and the store is closed down, there's nothing in the store and there's a sign on the door that says they're out of business due to the economy."

McNeely said she called the two numbers noted, but one number is out of service. She called the second number "numerous times" and left a message that has not been returned.

"I don't understand how you have a conscience and do something like this," she said. "If they were having a hard time they should have just told me and given me my money back."