Beware of Mroczniak

[lady-tanya.livejournal.com]

MAJOR EDIT:

I ACTUALLY RECEVIED THE PICTURE!!! It came in the mail this very afternoon! To say I was flabberghasted is an understatment. Almost lost it too, b/c I had given a Nom de Plume and my mother almost put it back as 'return to sender'.

So I guess this is the ending of the 'Tale of the Missing Tiggy'! Ended rather happily after all!

Thanks for all the advice, folks!

I posted about her a long time ago - she was the girl who, after accepting my money, disappeared for a year with my commision. Well, to date, she HAS drawn my piece, but has still not sent it to my house, despite asking for and recieving my mailing address twice.

She's claimed to seen the error of her ways, but many are still asking about their pieces in the comments. Even worse is this disturbing trend: Claiming to want to raise money to cover shipping and assist her family, she offered up ORIGINAL pieces at a low prioce. 6-7 repostings later, the list of originals have not varied. Judging by the comments, it seeems her new scam is to sell and re-sell the same pictures.

I wouldn't trust her farther than I can throw her (and that's not very far! *fail*). I almost forgave her, and believed her when she claimed a turn-around. I guess some leopards can't change their spots at all.

EDIT: Additional info

Here's a link to her journal: http://mroczniak.deviantart.com/journal/41106158/

Here's the link to my original post:
http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/408005.html

Here's the note from March 10th, to which I replied with my address:

MroczniaK said the following:

Omg, I asked you before, but it seems the message didn't come to you. oO
I'm sorry, my internet sucks and sometimes just "dissapear".
Yeah, plz tell me your adress, I'll try to send it asap. ^^

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superpower-pnut said the following:

Y'know, now that I'm thinking of it, do you have an address to send my commission to?

EDIT: I contacted her again last night via note. I asked her why she wouldn't send me my picture. She replied;

"As i said, I have sent them about month ago." (She'd replied the same thing to another grumbler). I don't know the POlish mail system, but it seems to me that considering I gave her my address in MARCH, I should have gotten it by now?

Comments

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Do you have any links to your prior post, the user in question, and/or proof of your purchase? Any links to her journals?

I'm sure you're being honest, but it feels kind of off-kilter without anything to go on.

[hamburger.livejournal.com]

Here's the previous post (http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/408005.html).

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Ahh I see, thanks.

[lady-tanya.livejournal.com]

Sure! Should have done that in the 1st place...

Here's a link to her journal: http://mroczniak.deviantart.com/journal/41106158/

Here's the link to my original post:
http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/408005.html

Here's the note from March 10th, to which I replied with my address:

MroczniaK said the following:

Omg, I asked you before, but it seems the message didn't come to you. oO
I'm sorry, my internet sucks and sometimes just "dissapear".
Yeah, plz tell me your adress, I'll try to send it asap. ^^


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superpower-pnut said the following:

Y'know, now that I'm thinking of it, do you have an address to send my commission to?
----------------------------

Okay?

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

You should edit this into your entry :)

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

I really don't understand why people draw pieces but fail on mailing them out. If it's done, why not give it to the client? I don't get it.

[keeperofdreams.livejournal.com]

My fiance has the opposite problem; wanting to send out the originals but none of the folks will get back to her!

[holydust.livejournal.com]

So are you saying she's basically just listing the same pictures over and over again, and accepting payment for them but never sending them to anyone who wants them?

[wolf-goat.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if she'd actually sold any of the originals, rather than jumping to conclusions. :S

[holydust.livejournal.com]

I'm just asking for clarification -- whether she's just using one big JPG as part of her advertisement and not nixing off certain pictures, or if she's really just fake-selling the originals over and over as the OP seemed to suggest ("Judging by the comments, it seeems her new scam is to sell and re-sell the same pictures").

[wolf-goat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't mean you were jumping to conclusions, I meant the OP. Just your comment was relevent to mine. :P

Sorry for the confusion!

[lady-tanya.livejournal.com]

Because she simply reposts the entry, all the old comments disappear, so you'll have to take my word when I say I've seen entries from people telling her to remove a picture they've already bought. 'I already paid you for 'X', why is it still posted' kinds of things.

I suppose it IS possible she's simply too lazy to edit the journal entry. And Wolf-Goat, maybe you're right and I'm making conclusions. I admit I have no physical evidence, just a few notes of shared misery between me and others still waiting delivery of their pieces.

I wish there way I and the others could report her to some kind of International Better Business Bureau....

[holydust.livejournal.com]

Well, she's obviously up to something and has no business conducting business, but I wouldn't put it past her to just be too stupid/lazy to remove the already-purchased pictures.

Regardless, it doesn't much matter; if she is just taking people's money and ignoring their contacts, she's scamming either way. Have you reported her to DA? I mean, they could see those comments ("why are you still offering X for sale? I already bought it") and might be able to take action.

[lady-tanya.livejournal.com]

DA has already told me they won't bother. they don't 'usually get involved in private transactions'. The best part was after they sent that, they sent me a survey asking if I was satisfied w/my service. Of course I said no! Who'd be satisfied with that?!

[kikai-saigono.livejournal.com]

This is just an aside, nothing to do with her commissions, except that she might be tracing images for commissions as well.

I just came across this: http://mroczniak.deviantart.com/art/Sailor-Star-143067459

and it's kind of a blatant trace of : http://www.allthetests.com/quiz25/picture/pic_1213726819_5.jpg

Sure, she could have just been "referencing", but it's not the last image like that in her gallery, and if she's using traces or heavily referenced pictures (with not credit) in her commissions, that kind of puts her at an all time low to me.

[lady-tanya.livejournal.com]

I have that very pic in my fave folder! Here's the da link: http://shadowmaster23.deviantart.com/gallery/#/dmlqm5

The pose IS similar, but I'm not comfortable to call it a trace, and I don't think da will either. Which other ones are like that? But it certainly adds another question to the pot!

[lovegonnadrown.livejournal.com]

I copied those both into photoshop and tried an overlay, but the only part that really matched up was the waist, and that's simple enough to be eyeballed pretty easily. It's probably referenced, but definitely not traced, unless she frankentraced the crap out of it.

[kikai-saigono.livejournal.com]

yeah, the head and the waist match up perfectly, but at different angle. Pretty frankentraced.

I mean, in any normal circumstance I would probably tell the girl to credit the ref she used and move on, but if she was doing this for commissions? For original work people paid for? Bleh.

[jyuni.livejournal.com]

....Which are also pose references/traces of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sailor_Moon_01.jpg (the background figure)

[kikai-saigono.livejournal.com]

oh geez, you're right. I can't believe I didn't see that before. Thanks!

[ariakitty.livejournal.com]

I would try to report her to DA again, letting them know about her scam. I wouldn't expect them to get involved with commission grievances, but her selling artwork that has technically been sold is pretty messed up. I've seen them ban people for less, so I don't understand why they wouldn't at least send her a warning.

As for your commission... You've SEEN it right? She's not just telling you it's done without showing you?

At any rate, how hard is it to drive to the post office and mail out a picture? I don't understand why she's so incapable of doing so.

[lady-tanya.livejournal.com]

Here it is: http://mroczniak.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3arhfo

She doesn't want to mail them out, b/c that would take money out of her pocket, as well as take the 'fun out of her 'game'

[ariakitty.livejournal.com]

Well at least you get a digital copy of it. If I were you, I'd just print it off since you may not see the original piece. :/

[lady-tanya.livejournal.com]

I have another question - when you make a commission, who owns the image? The artist, or the patron? She's posted the image into several groups on da (which I'm not entirely enthralled with). I'm also thinking of thaking it to the local printshop and having my own piece done.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Unless the commissioner buys the rights, the artist still owns the actual image.