Park West Contracted Auctioneers Speak Out

Article # 7
Can't Wait to Work at Park West Gallery?

Behind the scenes at Park West Gallery cruise ship art auctions, as told by recent ex-employees.

We interviewed four people who had recently gone to train at Park West Gallery to become Art Directors and Auctioneers aboard cruise ships and had subsequently begun to work on cruise ships, only to find that there was a wide gulf between the promised life of lucrative luxury and the real world of selling art on the ships. Their experiences should prove valuable for others who are contemplating a career in cruise ship art auctions and also enlightening for cruise ship art auction goers who can get a flavor of what it's like behind the scenes at a cruise ship art auction.

[Note: The people interviewed are real people and their answers have not been edited except to correct typos, spelling, etc. Their names have been substituted in order to protect them from possible legal harassment (not an idle fear in this case).]

The Initial Pull   "You'll earn more money than God!"

Robin:
I had just graduated from college with my degree in art history and really wanted a job in art. Any art job would have done. When I saw a posting for an art auctioneer traveling the world on a ship I though that was the perfect job for me. It combined my two biggest passions: art and travel. We were told it was a great opportunity to make a lot of money and travel the world. I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn about running a gallery since we were told we would have freedom to do with the gallery what we wanted.

Mary:
I wanted to get on a cruise ship. I looked at several different positions in many departments and decided that I would go with Park West. What appealed to me is that I have an understanding and appreciation for art. This allowed me to combine both of my loves, art and travel. I was also impressed with the promise of the amount of money they said they paid to the auctioneers. It far exceeded any other entry-level position on the ship.

I was excited that they would place me on a variety of cruise lines as well. This would allow me to get exposure to several different lines versus being an employee of just one cruise line.

I found the position on-line on a job site. I believe it was Monster or Hot Jobs.com

Sue:
I received an email from old friends . . one of those group emails, we know now it was all part of the "get $500 for recruiting someone" campaign. I rang up PWG and were told there and then I was accepted for the training program.

I was lured in by the lucrative promises they made . . the trainers often used the phrase, "You'll earn more money than God."

Before going we had read a lot of the negative publicity surrounding Park West, in particular with regard to the authenticity of what they're selling. We didn't really read anything with regard to how they treated the staff, so we thought, maybe it's just negative publicity and it will all be explained when we get there.

The Training

Mike:
I trained at Miami Lakes and had to pay for my own training. It's actually paid for up front by Park West but it all comes out of your pay when you start work.

Mary:
I did my training at the main facility in Southfield, Michigan. I believe I was in one of the last classes to train at that facility. I did not have to pay for my training or airfare. This gave them a lot more power to control the students in a more dominant role while being trained. As an example they once said:

"We flew you all the way here from South Africa and spent all of this money on you and this is the best you can do?! You better step it up or you will find yourself on your way back to Africa pretty darn fast!" I was stunned they would talk like this to a new potential employee who was obviously doing her best.

They now charge you for your own training and it's now done in Miami. You are trained now for two weeks, not just a few days, as it was when I was training.

Robin:
I also trained in Michigan and my plane ticket and hotel were paid for by the gallery. We were reminded quite frequently of this fact and that we should be grateful for the opportunity. We were told that we would probably be the last class that got all their travel expenses taken care of.

Sue:
My training was at the Miami Lakes facility in Florida.

Mary:
When I went through training, we had most of the second week's information and very little training on the day-to-day business side. It was covered, but more as a "oh yeah, by the way..." style of training. Pay was covered after you were assigned and very quickly.

Only a few hours of the training were directed to actual pay, and focused more on what not to do or say to prevent a customer complaint. How much money you could easily make (gross commission) was focused on heavily when pay was brought up. They even provided examples of ships' revenues and individuals making a lot of money. Once we were out in the field we realized the ships revenues were their highest weeks' sales and the individuals amounts were gross, before any deductions. I do not think my particular class had enough time out of the week or so we were in training to cover the deductions and what we eventually found were the costs to us.

At this point I understand that the first week of training is the business side and the second week of training is in sales. The business training in the first week teaches you how you run the computer software, how you do your paperwork on your ship, depending on which type of ship you're on, your accounting, your contacts at the home office, how you order art, how you email your reports back and forth... just the business side. That's the first week.

If they feel you have promise, then you go on to learning about sales in the second week.

Before you show up for training you are given a selection of artists to learn about. You are given people such as Alfred Gockel, Linda LeKinff, Tarkay - that's because you're going to push those people. We were not aware at the time that these are artists who are exclusively represented by Park West and that is why they were emphasized. It makes sense as these artists would produce the highest percentage of revenue potential per unit sold for the company. We were told it is because of the demand for their work globally. We did not know until we were on the ships that we were creating that demand by featuring them so strongly.

We were also trained on the old masters such as Salvador Dali. For Salvador Dali, the training primarily was focused on The Divine Comedy and Destino. You're told to learn these artists before arriving to training. Park West provided the information before you arrived for training. We did not deviate a lot about the artist or his life, just what they provided beforehand.

You are provided art movements beforehand as well such as Cubism, Fauvism, Impressionism and Surrealism. You're given processes of giclée, serigraph, lithograph, and original. And you're supposed to come with a good knowledge of that. You have to be able to rattle it off the very first morning, first minute you arrive. If you can't, they humiliate you, they make you sit back down, they tell you you're probably not going to be accepted... they just shred you. It is very demeaning to you and your character at a point when everyone in the room is still a new stranger to you.

They create an aggressive for success environment by telling you the people that are accepted for the positions on the ships are the ones that jump up to the front first and volunteer to be in front of the class early. It almost becomes a knock down between eager students to prove they want the position very badly.

Sue:
We kept on asking about compensation - what exactly is our pay structure - and this is the thing that really floored us. Of the whole 12-13-day training period, compensation was literally covered in 25 minutes on the last day of the course, very rushed and very brushed off.

Mary:
Yes, that was the same for us in Michigan.

Robin:
I found it very demeaning. I was criticized harshly for the way I looked and dressed and was expected to change based on the opinions of the instructors. Training felt less like they were trying to teach us about art and sales and more of them berating and belittling us for their own amusement. Their tactics were harsh and unnecessary for the job we were applying for. Before I came to training I decided to tone down my look and wear more suits and dress more conservative for the position. I was told that I was homely looking and should watch The Devil Wears Prada and become the main character after her makeover. When I was told I got the job at the end of training Chris used it as one more opportunity to insult me by telling me that I needed to change my appearance. I was told that I didn't look like an art director even though he admitted to not knowing what exactly an art director should look like. He even told one girl that she looked like a wet dog after wearing her hair naturally wavy as opposed to straightening it. We had one man decide after two days that he would much rather go back to South Africa than have to deal with Chris another day and he left the training.

We never received any positive feedback for our performance during training, only harsh criticism. We only knew that our performance was good if they didn't say anything at all or if they said "Alright, that's enough. Take a seat." I was once told after my analysis of a Picasso etching that it was a lot better than he expected from me. That was the nicest compliment I received from them.

There was no discussion of pay until the last day of training and even then it was very brief. We were told of the new compensation policy that was going to begin with our class. They told us it was still in talks but it was a 99% possibility that it would pass. Then on the day we found out whether or not we got the job our trainers told us that the new compensation plan fell through and that they were going to be resubmitting a new plan to the board. We didn't receive word that the new plan went through until January. However, in the meantime we were told not to mention the new plan to our auctioneers on board.

Sue:
My first concern came when, as part of our training, we had to go and get a load of artwork out the back of the gallery and we had to set it all up as a practice auction. This was supposed to be "training art" so to speak. There was nothing particularly special about it, it was just art in old broken frames, and what they obviously use for training.

Out of this box of 60 or 70 pieces of work out the back I pulled out a frame with an apparent Picasso and apparently hand-signed by Picasso. I had no background whatsoever in art but I was pretty sure that an original Picasso signature on a piece of art wouldn’t be in a box out the back.

I asked if it was really an authentic Picasso signature and was told that it was. I was told that obviously since Park West is the biggest art dealer in the world, they have access to this kind of print. This did not satisfy me, however. Why was it in a broken frame out the back being used for practice auctions?

Mary:
In my class we were moving art to re-stock the gallery and were let into a private area off limits where art is "restored". We saw a Park West employee at the gallery in Michigan who was in the "restoration room" do some work on a canvas that caught mine and some other classmates' attention. He sat at the first table to the left as you leave the framing area. We watched him over a period of a few days.

He started with what appeared to be a small blank 12" X 12" canvas with only pencil outlining and by the fourth day of us moving art, he had created a perfect Peter Max Liberty Head painting. When we questioned it, we were told it was probably from one of the ships and damaged and to not worry about it. When we explained that it looked like a clean white canvas the other day, we were reminded it is impossible that Peter Max paints every single piece of art worldwide himself. Besides, they all use assistants except Charles Lee.

I do feel after being sent to the ships and understanding the original works by Mr. Max that that piece was probably sent to a ship and sold as an original from Peter Max. I doubt he even knew it existed.

Robin:
Our trainers made a point to bring up and address all of its negative press right away. They then told us that it was simply other companies trying to destroy them out of jealousy since they were such a large successful gallery. We were told that if any of those reports were true then all of these huge cruise lines wouldn't be working with them, because it would damage their reputation as well, which made sense to us.

Sue:
When we asked about the negative publicity on the internet, we were told that because Park West did not want to join the Fine Art Registry, FAR launched a vicious attack on Park West Gallery in an attempt to bring them down.

Mary:
Albert Scaglione told us the exact same thing as he addressed our class.

Sue:
When we actually met the owner himself, Mr. Scaglione, we had a very interesting meeting with him. There was nothing work related in that meeting. It was more or less a sermon, basically. I'm not particularly religious but I have nothing against people who are religious.

We were given what amounted to a full-on sermon by the guy, which just seemed very bizarre. The sermon started off with Mr. Scaglione preaching that God would forgive those people in FAR that are attempting to bring down the company. He said that God had told him that what he is doing is right. It seemed very intrusive and intimidating. We were then asked to sign up for a Bible and we would be sent one.

Mary:
In our training Albert Scaglione came and talked to our class for about an hour. Fifty-five minutes of that consisted of why you're not or why you should be a child of Jesus and why you are not saved. At the same time he used his friendship with Yaacov Agam (Jewish) to show he did accept all believers of all religions and faiths. If we do not believe in Christ, it was OK, too. He prays for us every morning and evening that we may find his love one day.

He spent a few minutes answering other questions and then it was, "By the way, how many of you want a bible and how many of you want me to put your name on it?"

I can appreciate the business side and the tax write-offs of his charitable activities, but I never had a CEO forcing on me what his beliefs are and what mine should be. Everyone in the room was concerned, but once again, in the first week in your training, do you really challenge the CEO?

We know the trainers were uncomfortable with it because we were prepared by them to expect this before he addressed us. After arriving on the ships and meeting other people from other ships, we found that not only was our class uncomfortable, but most of the classes are. The teaching staff has even addressed the issue with Mr. Scaglione to clam it down some, as we understand.

Robin:
The one thing that I found truly bizarre out of the whole training experience was meeting the president, Albert Scaglione. We thought he was going to talk to us about running the gallery and art but instead we got a full-on sermon from him. He was preaching about his religion and saving our souls. He talked about us needing to find salvation. He told us about the shelter he founded for the little abused African-American girls so he could save them. He talked about each of us needing to find faith and spirituality. He even told us that he was going to send each of us a bible and for those that wanted the Quran he would send them one with "all the bad stuff cut out." It was the most uncomfortable hour I've ever spent in a work place. My whole class was staring at each other in disbelief after his sermon - it was a very strange encounter.

Mary:
When I got to my first ship, I found a whole stack of those bibles with all of the former auctioneers names on them. They must send them to the ships and the auctioneers just ditch them in the closets!

Mary:
We had the opportunity being in the main gallery to meet everyone at some point. We found them to be very professional and pleasant. By all appearances, this was an incredible operation and looked like a financial business machine oiled with systems that were very impressive.

It is what piqued our curiosity about the training and Mr. Scaglione. Why would a CEO have to shove religion to new employees? Better yet, why would such a billion dollar operation, the largest in the world and most respected according to them, need trainers that literally verbally abused their new associates to tears in many cases? Why demean a person in order to tear them down?

This was a consistent practice across the board with all of the trainers, especially Lane Conner, Chris Lindsey, and Vanessa. But Chris Lindsey is by far the worst of all. He falls short in many areas of business and life. He obviously needs to feel power to feel important and respected so he uses his training position to gain that power and acceptance.

Verbally arrogant, cocky and with an ego that only he can appreciate, he stands in front of these groups with a mission to destroy any potential confidence the student has. He singles out the people one by one and demoralizes them until he has completed the entire room of associates. After the room is waist full of his arrogance, he shoves their heads under and drowns them in his ego as to why he thinks he is the greatest. Those who come up for air above the stench of his head-driven testosterone have their heads used as steps for him to exit the room, chest protruding in pride of another conquest.

These three trainers are an embarrassment to the profession of fine art and should return to the telemarketing boiler rooms from which they came. If they did not come from the sleaze of sales, then they slipped through the cracks of sales decency and Mr. Scaglione should pray for their return to where they came (fired, terminated, axed, removed immediately from training and sales).

Robin:
I met the gallery president Albert Scaglione, and the lead curator Morris Shapiro. Mr Shapiro I found to be very interesting and knowledgeable about art. We even had a wonderful conversation about Warhol and how Marcel Duchamp was the death of fine art. However it was our lead trainer Chris Lindsey that I feel the company should be ashamed to acknowledge that he even works for them. He was just a cruel man who honestly got pleasure out of demeaning and humiliating prospective employees. He hovered the job above us knowing how badly we all wanted it and used that as the power he needs to feel good about himself. Not one positive thing came out of his mouth concerning any of the trainees. I would think that a company would want their new employees to feel enthused and confident about working and selling their product but it was hard to feel that way when you're being told every day by your boss that you are worthless, pathetic, and undeserving of the opportunity. I know it is common practice in training classes to break the trainee down so you can build them back up even stronger but Chris breaks you down simply for the enjoyment of doing so, then sends you on your way feeling slightly broken. It was common to find someone in tears after an encounter with him.

The Art and the Artists

Sue:
At one point, we were round the back at the gallery in Miami Lakes - it's a huge warehouse with big double doors inside, which are kept closed. We were completely amazed - and this is fact - when we were walked through the gallery and introduced to this man Tarkay, who had perhaps 4-500 pieces in preparatory stages. The only way I can describe them - remember when you were a kid, and you used to have those paint-by-number drawings, all exactly the same pictures but all just with a black outline and you went in and painted them? - he was doing that using Sharpies - felt-tip pens. He was there literally doing that with hundreds of these paintings. You can call it art if you like but it's not, in my opinion, what people on the ship are going to be thinking they're buying.

They drill home the fact that even though they deal with art multiples, every work of art is an original. Making sure we understood that was a major part of the training because they would repeat it on numerous occasions every day. However, when we had our practice auctions they bring out all these "original artworks" for us to use but it gets tossed and banged around as though it was a worthless replica. The frames are dented and some of the canvas works are scratched. However, the scratched works can just be touched up in the Miami Lakes Gallery we are told.

Mary:
There was an area my class called the cages that is downstairs behind secured doors out of the public area. It is a long hallway area just before the room I mentioned where they were creating the Peter Max from scratch. In the cages there are LeKinff, Tarkay, Krasnyanski and so on. You will stand next to a pile of Kransnyanski Sitting Bull pictures that are at least waist high, no frames, just stacked paper. These things are going for $1500 a pop. There are stacks of LeKinff on wood. There are stacks and stacks and stacks. On the other side of those cages in that hall is every possible artist’s work that is framed and stacked on its end. They are standing up on their frames, one stack after another for probably 50 yards long. They are everything from original one of a kind works from masters (Picasso, Dali, Chagall, etc.) to giclée works on canvas that never sell. All mixed into the same stacks together. They were handled rough and thrown together.

I saw one of the Park West employees stacking art. They just throw this art around. It literally sits in stacks on the floor and they just flip through it and scrape it and drag the pieces across each other. Of course, being students, we're being very, very ginger because we've been taught that this is a work of art. I saw one of their employees take a work of art and cram it into a small space on a moving cart between other fine works. It caused some damage to one of the art pieces and they were saying, "Oh no problem. We'll just get another one." I looked on the back and it had a "0000" registration number, meaning it was an original work of art. I asked, "How can you get another one? It was an original work of art from the artist." And the reply was, "Oh, we'll just call the artist and have him do it again. Let me have the damaged one and take this cart to gallery 15 for them to hang these pieces".

I suppose if all you have to do is go to the copy machine and press PRINT, I wouldn't be that concerned either.

Life at Sea, the Work, the Pay (or lack of it)

Sue:
I was assigned to a ship where I was to replace the existing auctioneer. I watched him conducting an auction and he seemed very good at what he was doing. When he met me, he said: "Do you know what you are letting yourself in for?"

I said, "No, please do explain." He was a really nice guy and volunteered a lot of information. He showed me his pay slips. There are so many expenses, you would not believe. How any auctioneer can possibly make money with the expenses they have to pay out is not clear. This is something they just neglected to tell us about in our training.

One of the first things I found out when I got on board was that there was an art steward whom I was now responsible to pay $300 to every seven days. Then there was the 10% of our commission that was to be withdrawn from our wages as a "security deposit" in case any art went missing. Then I noticed there was a $500 retainer as well on the auctioneer's pay slip. So I questioned it and was told that it was a one-time fee that would be returned at the end of the contract. But the auctioneer showed me more of his pay slips and every one had this $500 retainer on it. When I queried this with the head office, they came back to us with no explanation but just, "Yes, you're right, we do that every single month." They neglect to tell their auctioneers in training all this information.

A major concern was the goal structure. During training, we were told, if you sell this much, you'll get this percentage of commission, if you sell this much you'll get this percentage. When I arrived on board there was no goal structure. I was informed that I would be told our new goal structure the following day but for seven days I never got an email.

There was another major problem. This guy seemed like a very competent auctioneer, but we saw his pay slips. One pay slip was for $11 for a month's work. It had a list of fines he had been charged. We were never told anything about fines. He sent in some invoices and because they weren’t in alphabetically correct order he got fined for that. He had to video one of his auctions and because the camera was too far away showing him and the entire audience he got fined for that. After following their direction, he removed the audience from the camera view and zoomed the camera in only to show the auctioneer and art piece. He was then accused of "phantom bidding" (using fake bidders in the audience) and fined for not showing the audience. These are things that you need to be told before you work for them. We were not told any of this.

Robin:
As an associate I was told under the new pay structure I would receive $500 a week, approximately $2,000 a month as opposed to the less than 1% associates were earning under the current pay structure. However, that new pay structure kept apparently getting rejected and wasn't officially announced until January. So, when I received my first paycheck in December (it would be the only check I received from them on time) for $1,100 I assumed it was because we had high sales for that period. Unfortunately when I received my second paycheck in January it was only for $237. The auctioneer I was working with called the home office and they informed him that my check was accurate and reflected the amount I had earned for the month of November. It turns out that my January paycheck was to cover earnings for work I had done in November and my paycheck in December was simply an advance from this paycheck since they wait two months after each cruise period to pay you. I did not ask for an advance and so I didn't realize that that is what my first paycheck was. My second paycheck was what was remaining after the advance so I had only $237 to last me a month. I had to have my mother wire me money to help me out. Park West also charges its employees on the ships to wire them their own money but doesn't offer a free alternative way to receive our money, another thing they failed to mention to us in training. During my interview process I was told I would be paid after each cruise, which was far from what really happened. Even after I left the company, I still had to wait to be paid the remainder of what was owed to me because I had to be paid on the same schedule as all the other employees. I wasn't cut a final paycheck at the end of my time like a legitimate well-run company but instead waited almost two months to receive my final pay.

In addition to telling me that I would not be getting an immediate final paycheck, I was scolded for not calling up my fleet manager directly and asking about my pay and for telling people on the ship I hadn't received my pay yet. However, the auctioneer and I had both sent numerous emails to both of the fleet mangers and Cristina Davy, who was in charge of payroll, and the auctioneer had called them on more than one occasion to ask about pay. He was told not to worry about that right now or it was simply brushed off.

Mary:
I earned an average of five figures a month in commissions ($10,000+), but that is not what I got paid. One month, I earned over $15,000 in commissions due to me; after they subtracted their "adjustable deductions", I got less than $100 in pay. I was furious.

At my next port of call I ran into three other auctioneers from adjoining ships that were all in the same port together. In discussing my anger, I was laughed at by them and told that was not uncommon. They teased me for obviously being "the new guy" to Park West. When I asked why they have not questioned it, they exploded with all of the inquiries they had made and to whom they challenged it with at Park West. I soon realized I was sold a bill of goods that was no good.

I made the decision to immediately return to my ship and enquire as to everyone's pay that worked on my ship for Park West with me. I was stunned that I was not alone on my team. So I started asking questions to everyone employed higher than me at the company. I fired off emails and made phone calls, only to find a web of reasons and excuses.

"Sorry we forgot to tell you that we charge $500 per cruise for that," or "Sorry we didn't inform you," or "We'll be more careful when we have our training programs to explain...." This went on for months. I was so furious with the financial dishonesty that I quit Park West.

I just got my most recent statement for the month I resigned and completed. They actually said I had a negative balance and owed them money for that month. How do you gross almost $10,000 and end up to where I owe them money for the month?

RESERVES: They have this amount of money that they hold in reserve and don’t pay it to you for six to eight months.

Every single month they take the total amount of commission you earned, let's say you earned $20,000 in commissions that month, and they take 10% of that and put it into an account and hold it for six to eight months in case anybody wants a refund on their art or do an exchange or any art is missing from your ship. You just have to take their word on the refunds. They will say they had to refund $3,000 and take it off your reserve but you never see any proof.

They also take the $500 per month just to take it as a deduction from your commissions. I have no clue to this day what happens to that $500 per month, however after a year it adds up to $6000!

Mary:
I never liked having to record the auctions and sending in the tapes for review. I understand the purpose of it legally, ethically and to create a documentation of the auctions, but they were used against us. Every tape we sent in just led to more reviews and reasons for fines, penalties and reprimands.

You never could get a tape correct according to compliance.

Robin:
In training they taught us what they called the "I have a dream" speech. We were to figure it out for each artist and use that as the ultimate sales tactic. Basically we were to figure out anything the artist has done and use all of these things to build them to this larger than life character that pulls at the consumers heartstrings to make them feel like they need that art work.

Mary:
They had me pull some of the Salvador Dali's. Then they had me pull the Destinos. Then they had me pull all my Salvador Dalis in January 2009. Then they had me pull all my signature works from any signature signed master, no matter who it was - Picasso, etc.

I questioned all of this but was unable to get a straight answer. The fleet manager told me it was something to do with back order issues, which made no sense at all. However, we were doing research on the Internet and found the timing to be precisely while FAR was questioning the authenticity of the Dali's signatures that were sold on another ship. When we asked if the two scenarios had anything to do with each other, the fleet manager told us they didn't and it was an issue between Park West and the cruise line as to what pieces could be offered.

Once again at our next port of call gathering with the other auctioneers from the other ships, we all concluded that someone must have found out about an employee signing the Dali's or they had discovered they were using a signature machine. I mean, it is common knowledge in the real art world that Dali never signed the exact signature on everything and rarely, if ever in black pencil. He always preferred a colored pencil. Yet, that is all we had on the ships. We even laughed at how someone at Park West didn't really research Dali's signature practices very well. They teach that at every college art class 101.

However, removing the Divine Comedies and Destino works did not affect our sales on my ships as we had already removed them. I just didn't like selling them when I have questions myself.

Robin:
In mid-January we received an email to call the fleet managers immediately. The auctioneer was informed to that we were to stop selling all things Dali immediately. Weeks earlier we were told to send back all Destinos and Divine Comedies because they were going to do some special framing on all of them. After being told not to sell the Dali's, we were then informed that we could not have anything pertaining to Dalí on the ship for passengers to see. We had to pull all of our flyers, room drops, raffle tickets, and even change the video that we had playing in the gallery. The fleet managers called and emailed us almost every cruise after that to make sure that we were complying.

Mary:
It is taught by Chris Lindsey and the fleet managers that the mystery program is the auction and your weekly revenue. Without a great mystery program, you will fail every cruise. You offer an incredible deal on your first mystery to the audience to "sell the mystery program's value to the audience". This is accomplished successfully after showing some original and expensive pieces by the same artist.

EX:
Start with three very expensive set-ups to sell the artist value to the people

Then offer the audience the mystery program. By bringing up three works reversed on the easel so the audience cannot see the art, you have everyone blind bid on the mystery. When you flip them around to the audience if they do not want them they do not have to keep them.

Once you have them sold on the value of the mysteries you are offering, they will take the "big mystery deal" at the end of the auction (valued in the thousands of dollars).

If they buy anything at the auction, they are scheduled for an appointment to check out. This is where all of the mysteries are once again presented to them and all of the art that "didn't sell". This is often 3 to 4 times the revenue of the auction and where the money is made, one client appointment at a time...up-sale!

Robin:
We were told to perfect this because it is how we would make the bulk of our money.

Mary:
On one of the Carnival ships, I was able to see from the system something that showed the breakdown of Park West to Carnival and on that particular ship. It was a 60/40. 60% to Carnival. What was particularly galling was that Carnival was charging Park West $25 a day for our room and our meals, and yet Park West was charging us a much higher rate. Where was the other money going?

Mary:
Yes, I believe the hotel director has a report that is required as to what is happening with the department. The event is promoted as an event by the cruise line and the cruise director. Each cruise line has its own requirements and standards of acceptance.

Robin:
I was always a little curious about our real employer, Plymouth Auctioneering. Our paychecks came from them but we never met or had any dealings or contact with anyone from that company. They are based out of Turks and Caicos. We dealt exclusively with Park West but technically were employees of Plymouth. After seeing how we were paid so poorly and all of the money taken for ridiculous fines, I began to think that perhaps they were using this company so that they could erroneously withhold all of their employees' money through fines and fees and not have to answer to an American labor board for it because they were based in another country.

Mary:
There was something that I found very suspect. If I sent $1.5 million worth of art off the ship at the end of a cruise, I was told by Park West to state on the box that there was only about $10,000 worth. I was told it was so that they didn't have to pay the insurance.

Mary:
The only thing that did bother me was the way we were to conduct the final $500 Bid Credit Giveaway. Everyone had at least one ticket in the bucket for the drawing. However, we were taught/informed that we were to call out the bid number of the biggest spender/potential spender in the room to make sure it went to someone who can really be upgraded to a higher work of art. Even with the bid credit of $500 off their bill, they were most often the highest ticket in all of the invoices. This could be validated by randomly pulling the invoices for different cruises and ships. It is almost a guarantee every time they will be the highest. That is not a coincidence and felt dishonest to me.

The Back Door

Sue:
After a week, I realized that if I carried on, I would get into debt to Park West, which is why I removed myself right away. I don't know how any auctioneer on board can be making any money at the moment. I had given up a very lucrative job in my country and turned my life upside down, based on their promises. Basically, they've screwed me.

It seems they just have new staff on for a month or two, realize they don't have to pay them because they've left or whatever, and then they just get new staff on.

Mary:
I left over the pay issues, and not only my own. I was so disgusted with the way the others were being treated with regard to pay, and when I couldn't get Park West to straighten it out despite many attempts, I quit. Never mind the fact that I was earning $10,000+ in commission and getting paid under $100 for it.

I felt if an associate was promised 1% of the total receipts every month or $500 a week every week, they should pay that amount. They paid my associate absolutely nothing. When I queried this I was told that they were still reviewing the program and Albert hadn't signed off on it yet (but it had been promised).

Then they explained that they were charging my associate $1,500 for the training and airfare and so on.

Eventually I quit.

Robin:
I knew after my very first cruise that I would not move on to be an auctioneer; instead I would work a contract or two as an associate and move on. My previous auctioneer left the ship thousands of dollars in debt to the company and I didn't want the same thing. But I truly loved living and working on the ship. The experience was like no other I could ever have. Unfortunately dealing with the company not wanting to pay me on time, withholding money through crazy fines that the auctioneer earned working so hard for them, being accused of fraud and unethical behavior, and being treated like disposable trash by the company instead of a valuable hard working employee all contributed to my decision to leave Park West. My biggest mistake was trying to be honorable to this company and giving them a six-week notice as we were asked to do in training. I sent them an email at the beginning of February stating that at the end of my four-month contract I would be leaving. When we docked in Tampa I got off the ship to run some errands and when I got back on the ship at 3:30 pm for our 4pm departure I was told by the auctioneer that he just received an email that the following week when we docked in Tampa I was to disembark the ship and that a new couple would be coming on to replace me. After giving months of hard work, excellent sales, and the consideration of a 6-week notice I was given four days to gather all my stuff together and disembark. I didn't even have enough notice so I could buy more luggage for all of my belongings that I had accumulated over the past four months. I was left in the middle of the ocean trying to scramble and find out how to get a last minute cheap ticket home, where I was going to find luggage on my last time in Cozumel, and what I was going to do once I got home since I had given up my apartment, my car and wasn't going to be getting a final paycheck for another two months. I had to cancel my skydiving plans with all of my friends in Cozumel because I no longer had the time to do anything with them because of all my last minute errands I needed to run before I got back on the ship.

I just find it very ironic that a company that claims to place so much emphasis on customer satisfaction has such a high disregard for its own employees. We were made to feel utterly replaceable and completely disposable. It's a shame their new 40-40-40 satisfaction guarantee doesn't extend to their employees as well.

Words from the Wise

Mary:
I know that there are a few fleet managers that are secretly looking for new jobs in the cruise industry. I know that financially Park West must be really, really struggling.

They come up with the money when you become such a problem and the bill becomes such an issue that it becomes a thorn and you get paid.

As far as their future within the cruise industry, it is a profitable department for the cruise line. As an example, on some of the ships the galleries are just hallways. What else are you going to sell in that hallway that only utilizes the wall space, keeps the hallway empty for evacuation exits and still produces a 60% return with very little cost to the ship?

I do think there will be a point that the legitimacy of the product and the way it is presented will outweigh the income revenue.

The auction provides an entertainment element on the schedule, artwork for the ship, and a product to sell. But, when does that entertainment factor outweigh the reputation value of the cruise line? I do believe the cruise industry would create another solution if it could:

No company or organization has stepped in with a valid solution yet as far as I am aware. If someone could provide the artist's work for viewing and let people purchase it as a product, it would work. Provided the representative was very familiar with the art and inventory. That has been proven in the thousands of art galleries on land globally.

Robin:
I think it is only a matter of time before they are exposed for the lying crooks that they are and they completely crumble from the inside. They can only treat their customers and employees this way for so long before it catches up to them and sinks them. It's a shame that a company with such an innovative idea couldn't just run an honest business and rely on the strength of its employees and great ideas to be successful. Instead they chose to be underhanded, conniving, and dishonest, and it will eventually be their downfall and they have no one to blame but themselves.

Robin:
Don't be fooled by the promises they feed you because they are all empty. Working on ship is a wonderful experience unlike anything else in the world but definitely try going about joining the ships in a different position. And if you are in it for the art, then believe me, this is not the place for you.

Mary:
Understand your reason for joining in the first place. If it is to earn awesome money and sell incredible works of art then you're making a big mistake. The money is never there and you will owe them more than you can possibly make.

If it is to travel on cruise ships and get your foot into the door to other cruise line opportunities, then understand it will be all you will get, but you can use them as much as they will use you, I guarantee it.

Mary:

Robin:
I agree with all the points that Mary made.

Mary:
I think Park West is a struggling company through its own fault.

It has grown overnight (a decade) from a very succesful gallery located in Southfield, Michigan to a global billion dollar industry provider that is very influential in the consumers' eyes in the art world. In reality it is a very large company that still runs itself as a small company with a CEO that will not let any decision be made except by him.

Business owners sometimes need to know when it is time to fire and replace themselves and create a corporate culture based on a win/win belief system. At Park West there is no corporate culture among its employees or customers.

It started as a gallery offering some incredible art by incredible artists. Then one day a little over a decade ago they won the business lotto (cruise industry) and before they realized it, this little gallery had the potential to become a global powerhouse. They jumped on it as any company would. They began to expand and offer more services to more cruise lines which required more growth, distribution, order fullfilment, shipping and customer care.

They jumped into larger facilities (Miami Lakes - 180,000 sq. ft.) and signed long term commitments for the space, rebuilt the gallery in Michigan (60,000 sq. ft.) and hired more people for the ships. They made more and more long-term financial commitments.

The two greatest problems with that business plan are simple to see:

We now see a company doing everything it can to survive, from creating questionable art to meet the demand for high-priced masters (where the money is) to not paying the independent contractors (auctioneers/associates) in order to have the money for the long term bills (commitments).

Someone has to lose here. Should it be the landlord? The cruise line? The artist? No, it will be the independent contractor at the very bottom of the food chain. A common solution in a broken business plan.

The cute little six-inch alligator has grown up and eaten the owner!

Robin:
I think they are on their way to self-implosion. I think the way the business is run is unethical and dishonest and sooner or later it will catch up to them.

Read more articles: Park West Contracted Auctioneers Speak Out

Advocacy

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