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My wife and I sailed with Carnival Cruise Lines in December 2007. Unfortunately we had two days at sea as one of our ports was cancelled and elected to attend the onboard auction conducted by Park "ripoff" West. We purchased a Brett Favre autographed jersey and was promised delivery in 6 - 8 weeks. After numerous phone calls with numerous excuses such as:

• the jersey did not pass quality control

• the frame was not yet in

• we are awaiting delivery of the jersey

• etc, etc, etc...

we have yet to see the jersey!!

These people have had my money for 14 weeks now and there is still no ship date promised for my jersey. Do not- let me repeat- do not purchase any art work, painting or whatever from Park West. Look at all of the complaints filed- this company will eventually falter- be ware consumer!!

Monetary Loss: $1.

Location: Spokane, Washington

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Guest

The Verdict is in. Park West had 4 judgments against it in January 2010 for selling over priced fake art, fraud and unjust enrichments. More to come. 6 class action law suits and several major non class action lawsuits and the cruise ships are part of the law suits.Damaages in the billions.

There prices are 3-50 times more than actual value and ligitimate art galleries will not touch their stuff... you can buy their stuff on Ebay for 10 cents on the dollar.

Regards

Guest

Your article started good and I agree with you that the passenger makes the choice. The part that im horrified at is how you treat the auctioneer.

You think its funny to Dupe his as you say? This guy spends Most of his life at sea trying to make a living, this is NOT an easy job. He makes only commisions and working his *** off because someone gets post it note happy is outright tacky and if you like the champagne then I guess that proves the point of how tacky. Its such a great benefit that you can go and sit and learn so much about art.

You get to actually touch Picasso's, Rembrandts, Miro, Dali.

This is amazing that you can do that for free? Ok, I have that off my chest.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-29248

Chad I agree with you. Those people are just trying to make a living.

What kind of a *** goes into a place of business, and yes, that is his place of business and does that? And the fact that the auctioneer spent the last night in the bar drinking with you? BS at its finest. The art people are much too busy with inventory that last night to do that.

I know. My daughter works for Park West and what they expect out of their employees is equal to slavery.

So no one was drinking with anyone. Cruise ships do not allow empolyees to mingle with the passengers anyway.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-688406

Margie, you are wrong. I just happened to know that they play on the same beaches as we do and drink.

This is not just a one time occasion I am talking about. You meet the crew on the beach, you have a great day drinking and playing in the water, then on the last night they come to the bar and have drinks with you......they may be busy, but they manage to get there before closing.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-688406

Staff can crew can't. Get your facts right.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-950533

I worked in cruise ships for 6 years...and yes we are allowed toingle with the guests...just not fraternize. I was an a officer (I was allowed to drink alcohol) and would often have dinner with guests and meet them for drinks.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-29248

Guess you work for Park West.

Guest

I am a bit of a cruise freak. I take on average 3 cruises a year. one year for the heck of it I did 6 cruises in one year. I think this qualifies me to show you insight on park west and insight on what a cruise person might think of Park West Art auctions.

1. Park west is in business to make money so donรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt be surprised if they are there to make money. thatรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs what any company does.

2. When youรขโ‚ฌโ„ขre on a cruise, they have you in a remote area where they can sell anything they like and if you buy it then you have yourself to blame. Do your homework and make sure itรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs the price you want to pay. Donรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt have buyerรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs remorse and call it a scam because you make yourself look dumb. If you bought the item then you only have yourself to blame. No one twisted your arm.

Now that I got that off my chest let me give you how I feel about Park West. Yes they are a big rip-off. Go on Ebay and look up people selling park west items on eBay and you will find no bids. NOTHING IS SELLING AT ALL! And if it does sell then its half the price they paid for it on the cruise. That I guarantee!! Now this doesnรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt mean they are a rip off because after all it is a auction and you did buy it. No one twisted your arm. I have bought 3 Alexander Chen paintings on a cruise and one Manoukian, Martiros but I'm not mad because I wanted them. They are not very well known painters and park west was only place I could get them. Plus I never spend more than 3 grand for a painting so if they can sucker me into getting these paintings then they got me and more power to them.

now of course this is before I learned more about paintings, eBay and other places to get them so now what I do on the cruise is go to the auction look for the painting I want, write it down or take a picture of it and look for it when I get home. I have done that 3 times and all three times the painting could have been bought online with real appraisals that even say park west for 60% less if not more. So go on ebay, trust me itรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs cheap and real.

So in closing and my opinion, Park west is taking advantage of the uneducated but here is some good newsรขโ‚ฌยฆ When you go to the Auction they give free champagne. You donรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt have to buy anything, you get to look at paintings you might like and go home do your homework and find the painting half price if not more off. Also another tad bit of good news. If you do by from park west the appraisal does stand up well with your insurance and you can claim it if it is lost or stolen or fire, or flood and you will get full appraised value. So that is a plus. Set your house on fire and you will get full price back from insurance. lol

I spoke with a park west guy on a NCL cruise and he told me it is getting harder and harder to sell on the cruises. That allot of people do what I do, so if you really want to hurt park west. Go to the auction, drink the champagne put tickets and tags on items you want to see on the auction board and donรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt bid. Itรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs funny because the auctioneer will not sell anything and he will be very mad.. We did this on the NCL cruise, it was a 10 day cruise and 5 days into the cruise he wanted to kill himself. It was fun fun fun. Tag it all and watch them not sell again again and again. By the time the cruise was over he had given up totally on the auction and on the last day he just hung out with us and got drunk. He never knew we duped him the whole cruise.

so moral to the story is donรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt get mad. Get even. LOLOL

P.S. plan on doing this again on June 28th on another cruise were going on. Champagne on the house, bogus tagging and no bids. We have 10 people going. We are really going to mess with him this time. oh trust me I got my monies worth.

p.s.s. Just think of it like a new car. whoever buys it first pays the suckers price. itรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs always cheaper to wait and buy it a year old. allot cheaper. So let some shmuck trying to show off his flashy cash buy it then you can buy it from them and then you buy it on ebay or someone else for half that. I guarantee it will work

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