PARK WEST GALLERIES Misrepresentations! Rip-Off Southfield 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 have read some of the comments about Parkwest Gallery with interest. While I can't comment as to specific actions during auctions on cruise ships, I can comment intelligently about the general business practice (in my experience) of the gallery, as well as the value received for money spent. (also, in my experience)

My wife and I purchased several dozen 'works' from them at land-based auctions held in Vancouver, B.C., over a period of years spanning 1991-1997. We purchased original oils, original watercolours, serigraphs, limited edition lithographs, as well as works that were lithographs, but with hand-added work by the artist, etc.

In all of this time, including asking questions to the parent gallery, as well as ordering appraisals, not to mention many personal interactions between us and the auctioneer, we have received nothing less than courteous, friendly and professional service. Both auctioneers that we dealt with were knowledgeable and friendly. In particular, Stephen Rosen, who conducted all of their Vancouver auctions for years, was witty, amusing, entertaining, and informative.

At no time did we feel 'manipulated' or 'jived'....come on now, folks...this is an 'auction'. The purpose of an auctioneer is to get you to bid, and hopefully, the more bidders the better. Accept it, or don't go to auctions!

We paid anywhere from 10% to 35% of appraised price for the pieces. A couple of them, I overbid, and paid close to 50%, mostly because I specifically wanted that particular piece.

Over a number of years, we have divested ourselves of most of the works by donating them piecemeal to various charities. This has necessitated obtaining independent appraisals for them; the more expensive ones required two appraisals. In only one case did the appraisal come back showing less than the Parkwest appraisal; all the others were more, and some, significantly.

I had no problem having the pieces accepted by major charities for donation, after being examined by their own independent art appraiser/dealer.

If they ever resumed conducting auctions in Vancouver again, I would have no hesitation in attending, and possibly purchasing again from them.

Hopefully, my experience will provide some much-needed balance to this subject.
Sincerely,

In April 2005 my husband and I took a short cruise for our 20th anniversary. Park West was a nice breath of fresh air for us during a cruise filled with drunken, 20 something partiers. There was nothing for us to do during our day at sea so going to the auction was something a little more classy than sit around watching the drunks.

We knew from the start that this was a "buisness" unlike traditional auctions. We purchased 2 pieces and recived a free piece for applying AND USING a Park West credit card. There was a free interest period on the card so there was no extra fees associated with our purchase.

We were told several times throughout the auction and purchase that it would be several weeks before we recived our items.

I would gladly take part in one of these auctions again. It was fun entertainment for the day and I recived exactly what I was promised. I only wish I had the items framed by Park West as I'm finding professional framing to be QUITE expensive!

Thanks Park West

After extensive discussions with Management and Customer Service Depts of Park West, our matter ahve been resolved to our satisfaction. There were some clear misunderstandings at the outset and several of our issues regarding methods of payment and delivery commitments have been clarified. We consider the matter closed and would consider duing business with PArk West at some point in time

I am the Senior Auctioneer for Park West Gallery. I have tried to reach Mr. Kirschner via telephone on several occasions, including again this morning. There is no answer at his telephone and there is no answering machine to leave a message on.

Since I could not discuss his concerns with him personally, I sent him a letter yesterday with the following attachments.

1. A copy of the application he and his wife submitted for a Park West Credit Card account.

2. A copy of the invoice he signed with the following items highlighted.

- "Delivey Takes 6 to 8 Weeks"
- The discount he received for placing
his purchase on the Park West Credit
Card.
- The payment total noted as being zero
on his shipboard folio account and the
total purchase amount as being placed
on "PWCC."
- His signature on the invoice.

3. A copy of the Park West Credit Card voucher, bearing his signature authorizing the charge to be placed on his Park West Collectors card account.

The artwork did not show up mysteriously at his home. Even though Mr. Kirschner was rude and hung up on our customer service representative, just because he did not like the fact that it normally takes six to eight weeks to deliver the artwork, our representative made an extraodrinary effort to expedite his artwork. This was even done after a delay of a couple days while Mr. Kirschner considered selecting a different frame. Three weeks and five days for delivery is not at all unreasonable.

No one at Park West is attempting to stonewall Mr. Kirschner. We simply cannot reach him on the telephone and he has no answering machine. I finally gave up trying to reach him and sent him a letter with the attachments noted above. This was sent overnight and he should have it today when he gets home.

We make our very best effort to provide quality service to our clients.

1. He and his wife applied for a Park West Credit Card.

*** TRUE. The Auctioneer said there was no obligation ever to use the card for any transaction, now or in the future.

2. He signed a Park West Credit Card voucher authorizing the charges to be placed on his Park West Credit card.

*** ABSOLUTELY FALSE!! When we signed in for the auction we had not neither applied for nor been approved for the Park West Card. How could we have authorized something that wasn't offered to us
until after the auction was over. We were under the distinct impression that the charge was going to be against our ship's account!!

3. The cruise ship and not Park West is the merchant of vendor. Therefore, we could not have processed a charge through his AMEX card as we do not have the capability of doing so. Such a charge would have gone on his shipboard portfolio.

*** Correct. The charge should have gone against the Ship's Portfolio. We were not told it was going to be charged against our YET TO BE APPROVED Park West Card

4. He signed an invoice which specifies that the charges were placed on his Park West Credit card and not his shipboard portfolio.

*** Absolutely false. If Park West would send us such a document, I would retract everything we have stated in this report. To date they have not done so!!

5. In bold letters on the invoice it states that shipment takes six to eight weeks.

*** Once again, the invoice I received had no such wording. If Park West provides this documentation, I will retract this report in its entirety.

6. He received his artwork in three weeks and five days.

*** Only after I threatened to cancel the order entirely. When I "hung up" the first time on their so-called customer service rep. she insisted it would be 6 to eight weeks. Mysteriously it showed up a couple of days after our conversation.

7. He hung up on our customer service representatives twice when they were working with him to resolve his concerns.

*** The operative phrase is not "resolve my concerns" The proper phrase is STONEWALL US

Further, I received no calls from anyone at Park West. Had I received a call from Bill or anyone else in a Management position, I'm sure I could have resolved the matter. Every time I asked for management I was told I could not have access. I wrote to letters to the President of the company with no response.

In addition, after I paid my PARK WEST CARD BILL, they had the audacity to claim that my payment was one day late and that they were going to charge me $35.00 as a late fee. I cut up the card and sent the card and bill back to them a month ago without even as much as a courtesy call.

If someone wishes to call me and discuss the above points, I will issue either a retraction or correction if I've been misinformed. Until then, my comments stand. Further, since they have chosen to misrepresent the facts in this matter, I am considering a follow-up letter to the Cruise Company.

I invite other to examine the litany of complaints about this company and determine who is making misrepresentations

I am hard pressed to understand the concerns that Lewis raised.

I have tried to call him to discuss his concern, however there was no answer or answering machine.

The facts regarding his purchase of art are noted as follows.

1. He and his wife applied for a Park West Credit Card.

2. He signed a Park West Credit Card voucher authorizing the charges to be placed on his Park West Credit card.

3. The cruise ship and not Park West is the merchant of vendor. Therefore, we could not have processed a charge through his AMEX card as we do not have the capability of doing so. Such a charge would have went on his shipboard portfolio.

4. He signed an invoice which specifies that the charges were placed on his Park West Credit card and not his shipboard portfolio.

5. In bold letters on the invoice it states that shipment takes six to eight weeks.

6. He received his artwork in three weeks and five days.

7. He hung up on our customer service representatives twice when they were working with him to resolve his concerns.

I am not sure what more we could have done to assist this client with his concerns. Park West has served over 1,000,000 clients during our 35 years of being in the fine art business. We do not use slick and underhanded business practices as suggested. Perhaps if Lewis had not hung up on our customer service representatives he would have come to understand this.

My wife and I took our first cruise in March of this year aboard RCCL's Grandeur of the Seas. Not knowing what to expect, we attended 2 of the 3 Park West Auctions at Sea. During the first one, we sat and watched to see how an art auction worked. We are art novices, but we found the auctioneer knowledgeable and willing to answer questions. During the second auction, we bought 2 pieces, one from Victor Spahn, and one from Thomas Kincaid. We had them shipped to our home, unframed, with the appraisals. Our total purchase was in the $275.00 range.

On our return home, we researched our purchases on the internet and were surpirsed to see that we had actually been treated very well by Park West. Our purchases arrived within about 3 weeks of our return home. We are extremely happy with the service we recieved, and the works we purchased.

I don't understand how so-called "auction veterans" could consider E-Bay as a reputable source. Frankly, we took our works to a dealer in our area who does framing. Without seeing anything other than the prints, and asking what we paid for them, this dealer told us that we had definitley gotten a bargain, and recommended we use the same gallery again for our purchases. Maybe instead of trying to find Dali's, Rembrandt's, or other Masters at discount prices, these "veterans" should invest a few minutes in packing a Dali book or 2 to compare the auction piece to before they make a bid.