Hi everyone! Now that Sonya Moloko has turned into a Romanian “rus dni” artist, it’s time we dived into the situation with this person and explained why you should not support this artist.
This article is based on the info given by Sonya’s Russian customers and artists from the Russian art community who have lost money because of her and her husband.
WHO IS SONYA MOLOKO?
Sonya Moloko (or Night Milk) is a Russian artist who has a huge fanbase on various social media (and Russian networking service Vkontakte as well). Having an interesting artstyle, she has gained popularity rather quickly. So, what’s the problem?
Some facts about her before you continue reading:
-Sonya is Russian, she left Russia some time ago
-Sonya has a husband (Felix) who helps her with her workSonya’s official VK page
SONYA AND HER COMMISSIONS/MERCH
Source: https://vk.com/@kai_lego_ninjago-o-tom-pochemu-moloko-ne-zasluzhivaet-zakazchikov
Sonya really has a very unique style. Therefore, no surprise that people want her arts and merchandise. But is it really worth waiting?
Sonya often offers her preorders of various types of merchandise
Based on the article mentioned above, we see that Sonya can never meet the deadlines. Even with the help of several assistants people have to wait for months and constantly write messages. Sonya herself is mostly unavailable, so people have to write to her on different social media.
Not only does she postpone the delivery but also sends damaged items.
That’s how one of Sonya’s customers got their merch
One of Sonya’s customers:
Good evening, she delayed the delivery and then moved to another country, therefore the delivery again was postponed…
I hardly managed to get my track numbers, considering that there were THREE of them (one package for my ex-girlfriend, one - for my ex-friend and one, the biggest package, for me).
In the end, instead of sending my order in September she sent it in November-December. Seems that it’s not the last time this will happen.
That’s not the only case, just one of the examples.
But maybe she does it better with commissions? No.
One person had to wait for a YEAR for a refund. (Spoiler: the story doesn’t have a happy ending).
The customer: Good morning! I’m writing about my order again…
I’ve been thinking… And I've made up my mind to ask for a refund. I’ve been waiting for my commission for more than a year and I don’t think I’ll ever see it. I understand that you’re a busy person and I truly hope that everything is going on well but I don’t want to keep writing to you about my commission. Could you please return at least part of the money?
Sonya: Hi! Sure, understandable, I can make a partial refund. Sorry for the inconveniences. Can you tell me how much you paid for the art? (Send the screenshot if possible)
The customer: Sure!
The customer (the day after the previous message): Is anything else needed?
In the end, Sonya returned the money only after the customer shared their story with the public. Having published a post about the situation on one of the Russian forums dealing with unscrupulous artists, the customer was finally able to get their money back.
The post on a Russian forum about the situation
The screenshot with the refund
Still, another customer got blocked by Sonya because of the same request (to get a refund)
Sonya first agrees to return the money and asks for the customer’s card number and then suddenly blocks them.
At the same time there is still a pinned post in one of Sonya’s official groups (VK) where she promises to return the money to those who are tired of waiting.
Some important info on the commissions and merchandise: if you have any unfinished commissions or you’re still waiting for your merch to be sent, if you want a refund
Or if you have anything you don’t like about what has been sent to you
Write me :3
Now it’s a bit difficult for me to send my merch regularly when not being able to handle it myself
Now that I don’t live in Russia and have a full-time job +other responsibilities that make it difficult to devote myself to drawing and social media
My friends that have been helping me with sending my merch also have their full-time jobs
If you have any questions/suggestions or remarks feel free to write me
I’ll try to reply as soon as possible :)
CHEQUE MARKET 1
Once upon a time there lived an artist who thought it would be great to hold an art fair (in Russia we call it a market). Why not try?
That’s how Sonya and her husband came up with CHEQUE MARKET. The idea, the visuals, the artists invited - everything was very impressive. Yet…
Firstly, we’ll mention the article written by the person (Vasya) who helped Sonya and her husband Felix organise the event when the two were in another country:
https://vk.com/@vasileto-obserfest
That’s how it went: Vasya did most of the job (finding the building, talking to the artists, receiving money for the rent). Sonya and Felix, being in another country, helped with the design and the technical part (making a website).
Vasya was Sonya and Felix’s assistant, she was doing her job well but both Sonya and Felix started acting really strange. Not only did they revoke her administrator rights in the group but also tried to avoid any further cooperation.
Two points here:
1)They asked to get the money spent on the rent of the building back.
2)They didn’t want to pay Vasya any money for her work and kicked her out without any reasonable explanations.
Vasya gets her administrator rights revoked all of a sudden
Vasya: Why did I get kicked out?
Sonya: Nobody has kicked you out. I just don’t want to worry anymore. It would be much easier for me to organise the fair with my parents. And… revoking your administrator rights was my parents’ request.
Sonya and Felix have suddenly decided to… change the concept? That’s what they have told her. And they needed legal assistance. For what?
Vasya didn’t want to give them any money (unless they paid for her job).
An important fact: Sonya’s husband isn’t afraid of threatening others.
Felix: Hi! Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?
Vasya: What do you mean?
Felix: Maybe you’d like to talk to our lawyer? And discuss all the matters. Will you return the money for the rent? I really think you should give it a thought.
Felix: Don’t know what you’re talking about but my number is still the same
Felix: So, are you returning the money?
Vasya: I won’t discuss this matter with you
Felix: I’m waiting for the answer
Okay, you refuse. Your number?
Just like Vasya wrote an article about Sonya and Felix… Felix wrote about her:
https://vk.com/@vasileto-obserfest
You can try translating this text with the help of Google as the author of the article is kind of confused here. This is just really… random. The text first includes lots of insults towards Vasya. Then it’s all about something that is impossible to read without a glass of strong beer.
We don’t actually know how it all ended for Vasya. Yet, the story is not likely to have a happy ending as well.
The fair itself was mostly okay. Somehow they held it. It’s another story to tell.
And now… the final part of the article.
CHEQUE MARKET 2
The first fair was not the last. Sonya and Felix thought that they had turned out to be really good at this and decided to give it a second try.
Their biggest mistake was… any lack of interest in the process.
The fair was to take place on November, 12 when suddenly it got cancelled a week before the event.
Artists paid for their rent, customers paid for their tickets. Naturally, somebody was coming to Moscow from other towns/cities and had non-refundable tickets.
Why do you think the fair got cancelled?
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We don’t know. Really. There are many theories but now the one that we tend to believe in is this one: Sonya and Felix never rented any building and used the money on the rent for their own purposes. We can’t say for sure but that is the closest guess…
And here a question arises: did people get refunds?
Here’s the list of the artists and whether they got a refund for the rent:
Only 3 artists got their refunds. The prices for the tables on the fair were either 2800 roubles for the half of a table (~30 dollars) or 5500 roubles for a full table (~60 dollars)
On the whole, Sonya and Felix owe 103100 roubles (~1160 dollars)
There’s also an article where the situation is fully described (in Russian): https://vk.com/@ma1nvillain2001-otmena-chek-marketa
To put it simple:
1)Sonya and Felix didn’t actually do a lot. A week was left before the fair and the artists still didn’t know where they would sit:
-Any info on the seating arrangements?
-Should have been sent this weekend. Should have.
-Or today.
-Let’s play a musical chairs game.
-I’m really waiting as it’s quite scary, as well as the number of tickets sold…
About the tickets: because of no good advertisement the tickets didn’t sell well… (Maybe because they also cost a lot? Who knows…)
A small remark: the fair has been actually postponed till January. At least, that’s what the official announcement and email say (But should we believe it?):
Suddenly the ticket prices got lowered… When the sponsor ticket cost 2500 roubles (~28 dollars), the customers received only 2000 (~22 dollars).
Full refunds will be paid in two weeks. The sum will be the same you paid for the ticket. The prices were lowered only for the upcoming fair.
Why? What for? Why do you care about the fair in January when you still have lots of problems with the autumn fair?...
Why did you change the ticket prices if it changed the sum the website would send as a refund? So many questions, so few answers…
Sonya and Felix promised full refunds to the artists as well. Yet, in the end only few people got their money back: just several customers and several artists who got lucky. Ah, what a lottery!
Felix tried to come up with an excuse that the change of the ticket price was a sudden change of the website rules. But this didn’t work as some people actually got almost full refunds.
Felix: Hi, the refund is sent considering the service fee
Customer: Good evening! Then why did my friend get almost a full refund? In her case the fee was only 100 roubles (~1 dollar), in my case it is 500 roubles (~6 dollars).
When I bought the ticket, the fee was only 125 roubles (~1,5 dollars). My friend got a refund and the fee turned out to be only 40 roubles (~50 cents).
Oh.
The saddest thing here was that it was actually possible to find another building to hold the fair but Sonya and Felix didn’t do anything. They only promised something and left.
Where are we now? Now we see Sonya writing “rus dni”. Yes, such a good decision! Stealing money from these Russians to proudly write these three letters. How sad, how hilarious.
Let’s finish the article with the main points about Sonya (and her husband Felix):
1)Sonya Moloko has not returned lots of money to both her customers and artists she collaborated with (for the fair, merchandise and commissions).
2)Felix, Sonya’s husband, has openly threatened the person he worked with and wrote an article full of insults
This is not a hate speech. This article’s purpose is to let people know what has happened.