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| WE WORSHIP SATAN
DOT COM |
What about the customer?
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| Ok, at this point you should have been using your
favorite Internet search engine and searched for a number of terms
- parkwest at sea legal battle
- parkwest inside edition
- parkwest at sea investigation
I hope you went to more than just the first page of
results. Why ? because that is the plan of ParkWest Gallery.
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| CUSTOMER INFORMATION
You might want to ask parkwest gallery how safe your
information is. Especially if you were a land auction customer and you paid
with your own personal credit card.
From a source inside of parkwest i met at an auction, i
received a list of customer contact information that purportedly was from their
sequel service database. This contact information included what looked to be
credit card numbers and expiration dates. I deleted that file immediately. I
don't want that stuff. I just want to contact some other customers to see if
they had a good experience or not.
anyway, now i've got a few potential names to contact
without any financial information. Mind you, i received this information almost
a year ago so they might have fixed the issue by now.
Anyway, my opinion is that this information needs to be
encrypted who know what type of people have access to this information.
It is my understanding from a number of blogs, parkwest's
customer service blog, rippoffreport,and other sites. It seems as if there is a
great disparity between what parkwest says and what their detractors say. Make
sure you use some of the Internet search engines and checkout what issues are
there.
" parkwest customer service"
you should be able to find the following sites
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/archive/index.php?t-234077.html
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/081/RipOff0081039.htm
http://www.parkwestgalleriestestimonials.com/customer_testimonials
which coincidentally is a brand new website. they just purchased this site on
June 18th. and their is only positive reports here.
http://www2.fineartregistry.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=80 This
blog is freaking huge. And i didn't see much that said parkwest was
good.
http://park-west-gallery.pissedconsumer.com/ There are a number of complaints stating that parkwest is a
ripoff. So i changed my search engine keywords to
'parkwest ripoff' and oh my goodness. There seems to be alot
of people that have had a bad experience with parkwest. Links i found to be
particularly interesting were:
www.dba-oracle.com/t_cruise_art_auctions_scam_fraud.htm
http://www2.fineartregistry.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3
http://www.fineartregistry.com/articles/far_investigates/parkwest-disney-auction.php
http://fineartregistry.blogspot.com/2008/04/another-park-west-at-sea-art-auction.html
http://artnetwork.proboards1.com/index.cgi?board=artists&action=display&thread=195&page=3
From my unscientific estimation .. it looks like there
are a lot more complaints than there are there are comments for a job well
done.
In my opinion, once they get your money whether through
your folio, credit card or their GE Money card (more on the card later), you
are going to have a hard time getting it back see the contract section below)
unless you have some help (see what to do section below).
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COMPLAINTS REGARDING
FORGERIES
This looks pretty serious, there are some complaints
regarding forged items that may have been able to be purchased form
parkwest
Additionally, you can find some information regarding
Dali investigation conducted in the US and Europe. Looks
pretty legit to me. But check it out for yourself.
I've heard from my source from inside of parkwest that
there are some artworks called mixed media or embellishments. I guess these are
some type of print that is then touched up with some type of paint on the
surface to make it look as if the artist added this paint on themselves. So i'd
personally steer clear of anything called embellished.
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THE CONTRACT
Well basically from what i've read. Mind you I am not a
lawyer, but your screwed. They disavow anything the auctioneer might tell you,
they only guarantee what they want. See a commentary regarding the invoice
contract and the COA
here
Additionally, you can see what someone
learned
the hardway about the guarantee.
 this is great folks parkwests' newest appraiser
Caroline Ashleigh a self proclaimed authority of
fabric (why is she appraising prints al?) back in 2003 created
a document for the
Michigan Bar Journal entitled ' Using "Expert" Art
Appraiser - what a lawyers need to know' . I wonder of any of parkwest
appraisers (al baby, mini marc scaglione, bill smith, morris shapiro, albert
molina, bernard ewell or even ms ashleigh herself) can say that they can meet
these qualification. What do you think
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WHAT TO DO
First, Only buy a piece of art because you love it. if
you are going to buy it as an investment at the advise of parkwest or another
auctioneer you are going to be disappointed .
Second, I'd buy from a local artist. These folks would
appreciate your patronage way more than parkwest. Plus you can get it dedicated
to you or your significant other. What a memory that would be.
See what an artist has said about attending and buying at
an
art auction
Ok, so you think you've gotten screwed by parkwest. Well,
i feel for you. here is what you may want to do.
Call the gallery and have them rescind the contract (you
might need to consult counsel)
If paid by your credit card, contact them and notify them
that you are not going to accept nor pay for this charge from parkwest.
Post a sign that you are not accepting any shipments from
parkwest gallery. You've got some time. It takes them some number of weeks to
actually ship the stuff out.
Call the Better Business Bureau
Check out this advocacy group
Check
out this article by Inside Edition and then
contact them and see if they can help
Talk to
Mike
Holfeld that did an
expose' and got the customers money back
Well, looks like Park West Gallery has done it
now. Click here for a huge
expose' done by a New York Times
Reporter. There might even be an FBI investigation into the
galleries activity (check the last page of the article). |
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