Park West Galleries - Park West At Sea A scam, a rip off, a deception and a fraud! That's what Park West Galleries is. Pure and simple. They lie to your face and tell you one thing and completely deny it later. I was the victim of a bogus art scam while on a Royal Caribbean cruise in Sept 2005. Southfield, Michigan Michigan

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Rip-off Report Investigation: Park West receives a POSITIVE RATING from Rip-off Report -commitment to providing excellent customer service, pledges its commitment to 100% customer satisfaction - over 1 million satisfied clients - feel confident & secure when doing business with Park West Gallery

I realize that because of the nature of the website you'll only have negative reports about them. I have had a positive experience with them (perhaps due to the reports on Rip-off they're trying to improve?) but even so I have some caveats.

I ended my cruise with RCL about 2 weeks ago, and my boyfriend was wondering when I would get the print that I had "won" from them, so since I didn't have the receipt right on hand I decided to look them up to see the policy. When I googled them I saw the link for Rip-off with all the negative reviews I began to stress out over it (I had to pay a $35 shipping and $35 "appraisal fee") but thank god, the very day I read the reports (today as I am writing this rebuttal) the print came. It was what I had chosen, came with the appraisal and was shipped within a very large container and well protected inside, I don't know if it was worth the $590 appraisal (can check the internet, a good thing to make up for the bad-the unnecessary worry!) but I know from the quality of the print it's well worth over $70!! I am saying all this to reassure someone who DID purchase something, is awaiting the purchase and stumbles across this site. Having said all this, however, I probably wouldn't recommend buying art this way.

Unless you want to pay cruise ships outrageous internet charges (about .50 a minute) it's hard to research the actual value. And I don't know if this is the practice at most galleries (having never bought art before) that you can't get a refund, that at least give you a cooling period, but their no refund policy DOES bother me. I was not too happy that I had to “pay” for my prize, but I liked the artwork that I could choose, and felt that my artwork was worth more than what I paid. But I would not discourage people from attending the auctions for these reasons.

First, to promote the auctions they often go to other venues, like the trivia games or the shopping presentation and to get people in the mood, they hold mock auctions, for spa treatments, Russian dolls (I was on the Baltic cruise) and other paintings. Some people like me were confused and didn't bid not wanting to have to pay for the items, but FYI, the ones who bid the highest, got the items for free (except for the painting which like me probably had to pay for shipping and appraisals) so play along (you know it's free when they don't ask for the cruise card when they give you the item!)

Then if you go to the auctions, you get the free champagne, the print for attending which usually are nice, and they often have raffles or auctions or some way that you can get spa services and other cruise ship services or products at much lower costs then their original prices.

Most of the auctions have a theme and it's often about the artists or various styles of paintings so it can be informative.

Last but not least, if you really like the painting and can afford it and not planning to sell it (which is the only time the appraisal was important-I didn't like when they said that the painting was worth nothing without the appraisal) go ahead and buy it, you may not find it elsewhere. Although perhaps their appraisals may usually be higher than found elsewhere, occasionally there are probably bargains where you CAN get a good deal.