Mr. Gaal (Photo: Google+)

You know what they say about karma, so don't make us repeat it. It looks like good intentions backfired with Karma, a 4G hotspot provider initially founded in Amsterdam that presented this morning at TechStars Demo Day.

In press materials for the spring class, Karma's one-line descriptor was: "Simple, honest 4G provider," a sentiment repeated throughout its introductory blog post. But shortly after Demo Day ended, Travis Kalanick, the CEO of request-a-ride car app Uber, tweeted that Karma's CEO Robert Gaal had not been honest in mentioning a partnership with Uber during the company's pitch in front of crowd of more than 700 at Webster Hall.

just to clarify- @uber is not in any way working with @yourkarma - this company lied on stage @techstars demoday in order to get funding

— travis kalanick (@travisk) June 14, 2012

there are many companies working hard with integrity with @techstars program - it just so happens that @yourkarma isn't one of them — travis kalanick (@travisk) June 14, 2012

Mr. Gaal initially defended himself on Twitter:

@travisk There’s been plenty of planning actually. I’ll get in touch.

— Robert Gaal (@robertgaal) June 14, 2012

But in an email to Betabeat, Mr. Gaal seemed more contrite, writing, "We overstated our relationship with Uber in our Demo Day presentation and should've asked for explicit permission. Miscommunication happened. As you can see in the previous email I sent you with our press summary, we are not announcing any partnerships yet."

When asked about prior communications with Uber, including which staff members Mr. Gaal had spoken to and whether there had been discussion of a potential deal, Mr. Gaal responded, "All I can honestly say is that it was just a big miscommunication, and that we should've asked for up-front permission."

We reached out to Mr. Kalanick, but have not heard back.

In an overview about Karma sent to Betabeat yesterday, Mr. Gaal did not mention Uber  or any other partnerships. But he did quote recommendations on AngelList from advisors like investor David Pakman, Union Square Ventures' Christina Cacioppo, and Boxee cofounder Idan Cohen, who all spoke highly of the concept and team.

Karma also said it had "raised close to 1 million dollars from some of the best angels in the industry, including Werner Vogels, Kal Vepuri, Chang Ng, Jerry Neumann, David Tisch, David Cohen, BOLDstart Ventures, 500 Startups and Collaborative Fund." We asked Mr. Gaal if he could provide a Form D filing for the round. "The round is still open actually, so we haven't filed yet," he responded. "It's been raised on convertible note."

When asked if he'd overstated anything else, Mr. Gaal sent confirmation that the list of investors was accurate. “We’re not any different from the companies on stage at TechStars here, and we never lied about anything," he said. "There's no need to nail us to a cross now."

UPDATE: In a post on the company's Tumblr this evening, Mr. Gaal indicated that he had also misstated a partnership with American Airlines during his Demo Day pitch. Under the headline, "Mea culpa," Mr. Gaal wrote:

We apologize profusely for claiming Uber and American Airlines are working with us – a statement we never received explicit permission to use. And we apologize to TechStars and the whole TechStars community. We did not mean to overstate anything or unfairly take advantage of the network and the opportunities it has opened up for us.

In Uber's case, Betabeat has heard from sources who indicated there was no agreement on the table with Karma. At the end of his post, Mr. Gaal added:

 The irony of our name being Karma is not lost on us – but we truly hope to live up to our name and the core value it represents, and we hope you give us the chance.

Don't tweet us, we'll tweet you.

Had a flight delayed due to rainstorm Irene? Perhaps you experienced something like this! American Airlines,* AirTran, Continental and United did not respond to customer inquiries on Twitter during the influx of questions caused by the storm, according to New York-based customer service clearinghouse STELLAService. TL;DR press release: "If you were one of the unlucky airline passengers stranded due to Hurricane Irene, be thankful you weren’t flying on American Airlines."

According to the report:

American Airlines did not respond to any customer queries sent via Twitter and was slowest in answering customer calls, making customers wait on hold for an average of 1 hour 32 minutes and 39 seconds.
Delta responded to 100 percent of customer tweets, clocking an average response time of 14 minutes.
JetBlue also shined on Twitter, responding to 83.3 percent of tweets in an average of 11 minutes.
U.S. Airways ranked first when it comes to fastest customer support, answering customer calls in an average of 2 minutes and 38 seconds and responded to 16.7 percent of tweets

In other news, American Airlines also lost a passenger's cat.

More data from the survey:

Average call hold times of ten largest airlines during Hurricane Irene (hours:minutes:seconds)
U.S. Airways 0:02:38
Southwest Airlines: 0:08:10
Continental: 0:08:15
United Airlines: 0:12:04
Spirit Airlines: 0:24:07
JetBlue: 0:24:17
AirTran: 0:27:52
Frontier Airlines: 0:29:54
Delta Airlines: 0:33:43
American Airlines : 1:32:39

Average Twitter response times of ten largest airlines during Hurricane Irene (hours:minutes)

o Delta Airlines: 0:14; Responded to 100 percent of tweets
o Frontier Airlines: 4:04; Responded to 100 percent of tweets
o JetBlue: 0:11; Responded to 83.3 percent of tweets
o Southwest Airlines: 6:12; Responded to 83.3 percent of tweets
o Spirit Airlines: 1:10; Responded to 41.7 percent of tweets
o US Airways: 0:24; Responded to 16.7 percent of tweets
o AirTran: No response
o American Airlines: No response
o Continental: No response
o United Airlines: No response

Methodology:
The survey was conducted on Friday, August 26th. An average of eight phone calls were made to each airline from 9am ET to 6:30pm ET on Friday, August 26th. For the Twitter data, 12 tweets were directed to each airline between 12am ET to 12pm ET on Friday, August 26th.

UPDATE: On Wednesday, August 31st, American Airlines sent Betabeat the following statement disputing the accuracy of STELLAService's survey.

“We disagree with the findings of the study. We believe it is highly inaccurate and based on an insufficient sample size – eight calls and 12 tweets on average – that skewed results and does not represent reality. We handled more than 100,000 calls on Friday, and during the period in question our customers waited an average of 21 minutes – far less than alleged and in line with most of our peers. Our response time for AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum and Gold customers averaged from 30 seconds to less than three minutes per call.  Of the 78 tweets directed to us from Thursday through Sunday, a significant number of which did not request action, we responded to 46 tweets either publicly or privately to assist customers, and we also sent four proactive tweets with travel information related to the storm. Each day, and especially in times of service disruption, we make responding to and informing our customers – whether through social or other traditional direct channels – our highest priority.”

UPDATE: STELLAService updated its study: "The tweets sent to American Airlines were sent to an account they deem to be inactive, so we have removed their Twitter findings and updated the above chart for that as well." American Airlines's response: “We disagree with the findings of the study. We believe it is highly inaccurate and based on an insufficient sample size – eight calls and 12 tweets on average – that that skewed results and does not represent reality. We handled more than 100,000 calls on Friday, and during the period in question our customers waited an average of 21 minutes – far less than alleged and in line with most of our peers. Our response time for AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum and Gold customers averaged from 30 seconds to less than three minutes per call.  Of the 78 tweets directed to us from Thursday through Sunday, a significant number of which did not request action, we responded to 46 tweets either publicly or privately to assist customers, and we also sent four proactive tweets with travel information related to the storm. Each day, and especially in times of service disruption, we make responding to and informing our customers – whether through social or other traditional direct channels – our highest priority.”