Why You Should Boycott Alex Oleksandr Gamaniuk, Eugene Smirnov, & Taras Mokrytskyi of BOTMAKERS and Tarta.ai

Let me spill the tea about Oleksandr (Alex) Gamaniuk from https://copilot.us.

This guy contacted me to run ads on my CustomGPTs within the OpenAIs ChatGPT store.

On 30 September 2023 Oleksandr Gamaniuk contacted me on LinkedIn asking if I would sell my ChatGPT plugins.

After a bit of discussion, he asked if I would run ads on them instead:

“I think I could also bring you some advertisers too if you’re open for that” & “Can we start with $5 per 1000 impressions?”

For five months, I ran his ads on my Plugins (before they changed to GPTs) and GPTs, and he paid me for 3 months of impressions.

He never paid me on time for January 2024 (a month late), but because I trust people, I continued to run his ads and uphold my end of the deal.

Fast forward to 1 March 2024, he paid me AUD $804.13 (for January and February) then suddenly claimed he made a PayPal error (see transcript below) and asked me to refund three months of ad payments.

And because I’m not a piece of shit and I trust people, I refunded the amount.

But hold onto your seats, folks.

Once you read the full story and the transcripts, you’ll see how much of a sucker Oleksandr (Alex) Gamaniuk took me to be.

His story immediately flipped from an “accounting” error to accusing me of gaming his system with zero evidence.

I pointed out a basic fact about generative AI (which anyone with a clue about AI knows): you can’t guarantee or reliably force ChatGPT to give an exact output.

It’s the antithesis of generative AI.

That should show you how much of a noob he is in this space.

He then wanted to switch me to a pay-per-click payment model rather than the pay-per-impressions model we originally agreed to.

This is a complete contradiction to his (still unverified) claim that I gamed his pay-per-impressions model.

Let’s put it bluntly: if I was defrauding his model, it would make no sense for him to still want to run ads with me.

Clown.

What he realized is he has no clue how generative AI works.

He regretted his pay-per-1000-impressions offer because it wasn’t a viable revenue model (as he reveals in the transcript, I was his only “customer”,) for him and wanted me to bear the risk by lying to me to recoup his money, despite me upholding my end of the deal every step of the way.

He knows I have zero legal jurisdiction to get the money I’m owed back now.

So, the only power I have left is to expose him and his cronies transparently, here, so others can be warned.

The bottom line is: if you want to get ripped off, trust Oleksandr (Alex) Gamaniuk from https://copilot.us.

And Oleksandr/Alex, Eugene, and Taras, if you’re reading this, I’ll take this post down if you pay me the money you owe me.

You also owe me for the unpaid 23 days of March 2024 too.

Otherwise, it stays up forever, building SEO authority.

That way, you can enjoy the free ad impressions I served for you, as well as this lovely post in your search results.

The choice is yours.

And for everyone else who wanst to ACTUALLY get paid for ads, I’m working with a reputable company and happy to recommend them.

TRANSCRIPT

March 1, 2024
Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
4:49 PM: “Orren, it seems like there is an issue with the PayPal payment. Can you please refund it while I’m investigating?”

Orren Prunckun:
5:31 PM: “Sure. I received $804.13. Do you want me to send the full amount back now?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
5:31 PM: “Yes, it will be easier for my accountant to track.”

Orren Prunckun:
5:37 PM: “Done :-)”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
5:45 PM: “Great, thanks.”

Orren Prunckun:
5:48 PM: “😊”

March 6, 2024
Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
3:04 PM: “Hi Orren, can you please check the refund? PayPal says it wasn’t processed.”

March 7, 2024
Orren Prunckun:
8:32 AM: “Hi Alex, I got the notification of failure also. I just reissued the refund. Did you get this new notification on your end?”

March 8, 2024
Orren Prunckun:
12:30 PM: “See attached. It appears the issue is PayPal won’t refund the full amount as they have taken the transaction fee. In other words, I probably can only refund the amount minus PayPal’s transaction fee.”

12:33 PM: “The refund is still pending so I can’t cancel it or reissue the refund until PayPal decides what to do. Another alternative would be to wait until the pending refund fails and then refund the difference from this amount and the last two months. That may overcome it?”

March 9, 2024
Orren Prunckun:
10:56 PM: “As expected the refund fails, I’ve just sent back AUD $792.60 (which is the full amount minus the PayPal fee). Let’s see how this works.”

March 17, 2024
Orren Prunckun:
11:11 PM: “Hey Alex, it looks like this payment refunded to you!”

March 19, 2024
Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
6:19 AM: “Hey, Orren, yes I see it in PayPal.”

Orren Prunckun:
11:51 AM: “Great! Are you still planning on doing the payout for January and February?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
2:38 PM: “I stopped the ads a couple of weeks ago. We’re investigating why they’re not showing in your GPTs. I turn on the ads and nothing happens. I see impressions in the database, it means the API is called but the ads are not displayed.”

2:40 PM: “Instead, I see this in the GPTs.”

2:44 PM: “https://chat.openai.com/share/a267cd9d-d7a7-4f40-b623-9805de3d938f"

Orren Prunckun:
2:44 PM: “Are they showing on other client’s GPTs?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
2:44 PM: “I have only you. I also have my own 30 GPTs, they do show yes. I don’t have the exact date when it all started. I first noticed it when I sent you the payment, that’s why I started the investigation.”

Orren Prunckun:
2:47 PM: “Here is the current JSON response.”
(Attached JSON response)

2:50 PM: “Can you remove [SPONSORED] from your ads and we can try without it?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
2:50 PM: “Does this code display your ad and then mine? Yes, I can.”

Orren Prunckun:
2:50 PM: “Yes, that is what it used to do.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
2:51 PM: “I’ll ask Eugene (my partner) to update the ads and turn them on when he wakes up today. Do all your GPTs display the ads?”

Orren Prunckun:
2:54 PM: “Here is an old chat I have from about February 28 that was displaying the ads.”
(Attached chat)

2:56 PM: “It’s working on this currently: https://chat.openai.com/share/f9cfb7b8-2d7b-4b7d-9e7f-d275c75aa485"

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
3:09 PM: “When did you have this chat? I don’t see the ad.”
(Attached screenshots)

Orren Prunckun:
3:12 PM: “Just now.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
3:12 PM: “4/4 still not showing.”
(Attached screenshots)

Orren Prunckun:
3:13 PM: “Regular.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
3:13 PM: “I think you can’t share debug chats.”

Orren Prunckun:
3:13 PM: “Correct — debug chats can’t be shared.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
3:14 PM: “I have a couple more ChatGPT accounts. I’ll ask Eugene to check there too. By the way, are those links clickable? The ad links.”

Orren Prunckun:
3:14 PM: “But the data passed from API to chat has the sponsored text in it (hence why you see impressions), but ChatGPT is choosing not to display it in the response, despite the prompt asking it to. That’s why it could be [SPONSORED] wording is the issue.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
3:30 PM: “No, my impression means the ‘API called and returned an ad.’ I can’t track if the ad text was actually displayed in ChatGPT.”

March 20, 2024
Orren Prunckun:
9:53 AM: “Here is another competitor who wants me to run their ads on my GPTs. Their implementation of the prompt to ChatGPT is very similar to my implementation — it’s a suggestion to ChatGPT, but it can’t force ChatGPT to display it. They will have the same issues that are being faced here too.”

10:41 PM: “Ads seem to be working when I use the mobile app version.”

March 23, 2024
Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
4:28 AM: “I think we need to switch to pay-per-click. Because my team checked all your GPTs and the ads were shown only in the small GPTs. The top ones that are featured didn’t display the ads.”

Orren Prunckun:
8:18 AM: “Pay-per-click only interests me if the ad is matched to the GPT and not generic. That appears to be dictated by ChatGPT and out of both our control.”

8:32 AM: “Also, just letting you know I have just stopped running your ads on my GPTs.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:37 AM: “Do you want to switch to that advertiser?”

Orren Prunckun:
8:39 AM: “If I am not going to get paid for the last 10 weeks, that’s probably the best.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:40 AM: “I can’t pay for impressions that weren’t shown. I see the API was called but when I checked 12 times (the chat I shared with you), none of the ads was shown.”

Orren Prunckun:
8:41 AM: “That’s on OpenAI, not me.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:42 AM: “To join the video meeting, click this link: https://meet.google.com/cmz-agjj-auz"

Orren Prunckun:
8:43 AM: “I wish you brought this up in the first week of January 2024. Sorry, I’m not willing to invest more time into this with a call.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:45 AM: “I’m okay to pay for the impressions users actually saw, but I didn’t check your GPTs if they display the ads every day.”

Orren Prunckun:
8:45 AM: “You can’t track that though.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:46 AM: “I can’t. Look at this, a few weeks ago I tried more than 12 times.”
(Attached screenshot)

Orren Prunckun:
8:46 AM: “I’m not going to argue with you. All I want to know is if you will pay for the past 10 weeks or not?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:47 AM: “I paid before and I’m okay to pay for the impressions users saw. Please don’t make it sound like I did something wrong.”

Orren Prunckun:
8:48 AM: “How will you determine that?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:48 AM: “Determine what?”

Orren Prunckun:
8:48 AM: “The impressions users saw?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:48 AM: “I give you a screenshot that clearly shows that the ads are not displayed. I don’t know where the bug is but impressions didn’t happen.”

Orren Prunckun:
8:49 AM: “That is not what I asked. You said ‘I’m okay to pay for the impressions users saw.’ How will you determine that?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:49 AM: “How did we determine that before?”

Orren Prunckun:
8:50 AM: “I don’t know how you did that in your ad server — there is no transparency or dashboard for me to see.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:51 AM: “It’s not about logs. I have the data in Elasticsearch and can export it for you. What I see are the API calls you made. It shows the calls.”

Orren Prunckun:
8:51 AM: “Great — so you will pay based on that?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:52 AM: “I pay for impressions, not calls.”
(Attached screenshot)

“The API calls data. When I checked it a few weeks ago, the data was recording to the database but the ads weren’t shown. Instead, your ad was always displayed (Edited). As you can see on the screenshot. If you join Google Meet, I’ll show you the chats in ChatGPT (Edited).”

Orren Prunckun:
8:54 AM: “Looks like we are no longer in business together anymore. I wish you well.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:55 AM: “Orren, I’m clearly showing you the problem and you ignore it.”

Orren Prunckun:
8:56 AM: “This is NOT my problem — I’ve delivered everything I said I would. This is OpenAI choosing what to display from the Action API — I’ve said this before.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:56 AM: “You didn’t. I’m showing you the proof.”

Orren Prunckun:
8:56 AM: “I did the right thing by you and refunded the money when I could have kept it. I followed up a few times asking if you would pay out for January and February and you didn’t. I’m not wasting any more time on this.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:57 AM: “I did make a payout (Edited) for both January and February.”

Orren Prunckun:
8:58 AM: “I’ve shown you that the other competitor has the same implementation as you (which is at the vulnerability of OpenAI choosing to display it or not). You asked me to refund it and I did.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
8:59 AM: “So, if OpenAI doesn’t display my ads but displays yours, you still want me to pay? Do you understand how display advertising works? If you work with Google AdSense but don’t display ads, you’re not getting paid, for instance if users use AdBlock.”

Orren Prunckun:
9:00 AM: “The deal was, I run your ad API with a prompt via an Action into the GPTs. I understand it very well. You’re now shifting the risk on to me and you have no way of tracking impressions within GPTs, only API calls. That’s a flaw in the business model.”

Orren Prunckun:
9:04 AM: “It’s clear you are not going to pay me for the last 10 weeks despite my asking several times. I did the right thing by continuing to run your ad server in that time when I could have been using a competitor. When you finally did pay, you asked for a refund which I did, now you’re saying you’re not going to pay a thing. I’m not wasting any more time on this. All the best with the venture.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
9:05 AM: “‘The deal was, I run your ad API with a prompt via an Action into the GPTs.’ We’re talking about displaying ads, not only about calling an API. The ads weren’t shown. Again, I’m okay to pay as I did multiple times before and you know it.”

Orren Prunckun:
9:07 AM: “Why did it take you 10 weeks to raise this? If you are okay to pay, then pay.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
9:07 AM: “How much should I pay? I’m sure some ads were shown, but definitely not all.”

Orren Prunckun:
9:07 AM: “I have no idea because there is zero transparency and no dashboard. You need to build a system that can track it (which is impossible).”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
9:08 AM: “Okay, I’m exporting the data right now for you.”

9:12 AM: “Sent you by email. You can easily load it in Excel/Google Sheets.”

9:15 AM: “And please, let’s find a solution. The other advertisers won’t be willing to work with you if they find out about the issue.”

9:16 AM: “Let’s find numbers that will work for both of us and switch to pay-per-click. We already implemented the tracking and see some clicks from you. You can check it in the data I sent you.”

Orren Prunckun:
10:32 AM: “Are you paying based on data in that CSV? Pay per click doesn’t interest me.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
11:10 AM: “All previous payments were based on the data. You can check the stats, they’ll match the payments.”

11:11 AM: “We can still use impressions but I need to check if we can use image loading requests to track the actual display of the ads. The same way Facebook pixel works.”

Orren Prunckun:
12:03 PM: “Great, so then repay the amount I refunded.”

12:43 PM: “The other thing you are not taking into account is that these ads were running on Plugins also until they were removed a few days back.”

March 24, 2024
Orren Prunckun:
7:51 AM: (Attached image)

7:54 AM: “Competition is coming and I’m getting offers by the day.”
(Attached image)

“They have automated payouts dictated by the publisher with no minimum to guarantee payments.”

March 26, 2024
Orren Prunckun:
11:53 AM: “What do you think the best way to solve this is?”

March 27, 2024
Orren Prunckun:
6:23 PM: “Are you ignoring my messages on LinkedIn?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
6:30 PM: “They have always been there.”

Orren Prunckun:
6:45 PM: “This is getting tiresome. Are you going to pay or not?”

March 28, 2024
Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
11:58 AM: “Hi Orren. Can you tell me the exact date when you made the changes in the code adding your agency ads to the plugins/GPTs?”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
12:13 PM: “I asked Eugene to check the chats we have with your plugins/GPTs to see if we see your ads next to ours since our ads were added on October 18, 2023.”

Oleksandr Gamaniuk:
12:13 PM: “Since the ads weren’t shown when we checked, we now need to figure out what happened. From what I can tell, you were displaying your ads instead of mine, while still calling our ads API to mimic some impressions. It looks like an attempt to game the system and divert traffic to your own site rather than to the advertisers’. I’ve asked for a Google Meets call to discuss this directly, which you declined. I’ve also sent over screenshots as evidence. Moreover, I’ll have Eugene put together a short video showcasing my 12 attempts to get our ads displayed on the ChatGPT website.”

“The next step is to review the chat history from the date the ads were supposed to run. We’ll see if your ads were indeed running alongside ours as you claim. This is happening tomorrow. If you’re interested in resolving this issue, securing your payout, and maintaining the possibility of working with advertisers in the future, I urge you to cooperate and provide the requested information regarding the changes made to the code. Otherwise, I assure you, I will take all necessary steps to ensure you find it challenging to work with any advertising networks. They too reach out to us seeking promotion opportunities, and I am in constant communication with them.”

“Oleksandr.”

Orren Prunckun:
1:08 PM:
“When you checked” is not a reliable source. You have also been saying that you need to figure out what happened for weeks now, with no progress. That accusation is categorically not correct and further, there were no terms and conditions to say I couldn’t run additional ads.

I declined because I now want everything in writing due to circumstances that have transpired. That doesn’t account for January and February when Plugins were running. I showed you a screenshot of the chats displaying ads which is in contrast to your assertion.

This claim is clear you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how ChatGPT works — you can’t dictate what it will show and not show. As I have said on previous occasions, your business model is wrong if you want that to occur, and now you realize that, you want to push the risk onto publishers by changing the game to be CPCs not CPMs.

Why did not you do that in January 2024 but still continue to run ads on my Plugins and GPTs until I asked you several times you to look at it — this has all the hallmarks of an attempt to game the system, especially when you do not is no publisher dashboard for transparency. Then you told me you wanted me to refund the payment so your accountant could track it. In retrospect, that was a lie and regardless, in good faith, I refunded it only to learn after you did bait-and-switch by changing your story.

Then you proceeded to ignore me for a week.

Now, if you are threatening me, I too will make it very hard for you to work with publishers as 1) not only am I in all the major publisher networks which have some of the biggest GPT publishers in their categories, 2) I’m well respected in those networks, especially compared to you.

Orren Prunckun”