Daniel McAfee spent nearly $2,600 on a new swing set for his five children in Frederick, Maryland, after a storm damaged their old one. Instead of a backyard playset, he says what showed up was a small moisture-absorbing bag tucked inside an envelope.
McAfee had found the Gorilla Playsets Treasure Trove I Swing Set listed on SelectSheds.com for $800 to $1,000 less than other retailers were charging, according to WMAR 2 News. His order confirmation shows he paid $2,598.99 for the set. When tracking information failed to arrive, he reached out to the company's customer service, and SelectSheds assured him by email that the order would ship within two business days.
He eventually received a tracking number and watched the shipment online until it showed as delivered. But the station reports that what arrived at his door was not a swing set at all — just the small moisture-absorbing packet inside an envelope. McAfee emailed a photo and asked where the playset was. SelectSheds responded that its own records showed the order had been delivered, though the same email acknowledged the pictured parcel might not match the playset he had ordered. McAfee later requested a refund.
A Company WMAR Couldn't Pin Down
Hoping to resolve the dispute, McAfee sent photos showing that the envelope's shipping label matched the tracking number tied to his order, the station's report notes. WMAR 2 News contacted SelectSheds by email and called the phone numbers listed on its website, but the recordings at both numbers identified a different business entirely.
SelectSheds describes itself on its own site as a family-owned business located in Henderson, Nevada. Yet when the station searched Nevada's business registry under three variations of the name — Select Shed, Select Sheds and SelectSheds — it found no matching business. WMAR says it asked the company for its legal business name, a physical address, an explanation for the mismatched phone recordings, and a direct response to McAfee's complaint. The outlet says it never heard back.
One Formal Complaint and More Than 65 Scam Tracker Reports
The Better Business Bureau opened an investigation into SelectSheds, and, per the station's reporting, the BBB said the company had not responded to its questions as of mid-May. The bureau has logged one formal complaint along with more than 65 Scam Tracker reports from consumers describing products that never arrived, though those tracker entries reflect individual accounts rather than confirmed findings. SelectSheds also advertises discounts for customers who pay via ACH or direct bank transfer, a detail the station flagged as worth knowing before buying.
McAfee isn't the only shopper describing trouble with a swing-set order placed through Select Sheds. In Kansas, a family told KWCH that they ordered a swing set online from Select Sheds in November and never received the product, and were pursuing a refund through their credit card company. The Better Business Bureau pointed to missing shipping updates and a charge that appeared under a different company name than the website where the purchase was made as red flags in that case.
Getting the Money Back
The delivery record complicated McAfee's effort to recover his payment, but he disputed the charge with his credit card company and says he eventually got everything back after about a month to a month and a half. He then bought the same swing-set model through Home Depot, this time paying roughly $1,000 more than the SelectSheds price that had first caught his eye. McAfee, his son and his father assembled the replacement set themselves.
Consumers who find themselves in a similar dispute have federal protections to lean on. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says that, to protect your rights, you must send a written billing-error notice to your card company within 60 calendar days after the charge appears on your statement, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
WMAR's reporting offers a handful of practical takeaways for anyone shopping an unfamiliar retailer: search the seller's name alongside words like complaints or scam, compare prices across multiple retailers before assuming a deal is legitimate, pay with a credit card rather than a bank transfer, and save the listing, order confirmation and all correspondence. If a package arrives that doesn't match what was ordered, keep the shipping label and photograph the contents, and contact the credit card company promptly if the seller won't resolve the problem.
