A lengthy email exchange between a Harvard professor and the owner of a mom-and-pop Chinese restaurant in Brookline was published online and showing people that you just do not mess with a guy with a law degree, and you certainly do not overcharge him by four dollars for a delicious Chinese take-out meal.
Ben Edelman teaches Negotiation, Organizations & Markets at Harvard Business school. It seems he ordered food from the website of Sichuan Garden in Brookline, Massachusetts but was overcharged on the final bill. According to the restaurant's owner, Ran Duan, the discrepancy in price was due to outdated prices online and he apologized for the confusion.
However, Edelman began to take things further, citing violation after violation and demanding a twelve dollar refund for the oversite - three times more than what he was actually overcharged. Saying that it was a small fine to pay considering the possible countless other customers who were deceived by the lower prices published on the website.
In the succeeding emails, Duan tries to appease Edelman by offering instead to honor the website price and refund three dollars. Edelman refused and threatened legal action.
A few more lengthy emails later, all of which have been published online, the issue was not resolved and both parties informed each other that they would consult with their attorneys before taking any further action.
The whole exchange seems a bit outrageous, especially for such a small overcharge, but Edelman remains steadfast in his stand that he was wronged by the restaurant.
"We all rely on trust in our daily lives - that when sales tax is added, it actually applies and equals the specified amount; that the meter in a taxi shows the correct amount provided by law and correctly measures the actual distance; that when you order takeout, the price you see online matches the amount you pay in the restaurant. We all take most of this for granted. It would be a lot of trouble to all have to check these things day in and day out. That's exactly why we should be concerned when folks fall short - because hardly anyone ever checks, so these problems can go unnoticed and can affect, in aggregate, large amounts," he said.
Meanwhile, Duan, who was named the "2014 National winner of the Bombay Sapphire & USBG Most Imaginative Bartender competition," says that he is just trying to run his business which was started by his parents. He said that even though they lack the funds to hire a marketing and customer service team to regularly update the websites of the restaurants' two locations, he tried to answer Edelman's ranting emails with as much professionalism as he could.
Although Edelman has not yet been refunded for his take-out, he said he already filed a complaint with town officials, although he doesn't expect them to act on it.
