This is what happens when a Harvard business lawyer goes to war with a Chinese restaurant over $4 - Polidicks

[quote]Ben Edelman is an associate professor at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets unit. Ran Duan manages The Baldwin Bar, located inside the Woburn location of Sichuan Garden, a Chinese restaurant founded by his parents. Last week, Edelman ordered what he thought was $53.35 worth of Chinese food from Sichuan Garden’s Brookline Village location. Edelman soon came to the horrifying realization that he had been overcharged. By a total of $4. If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a Harvard Business School professor thinks a family-run Chinese restaurant screwed him out of $4, you’re about to find out. (Hint: It involves invocation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Statute and multiple threats of legal action.)[/quote] [url]http://www.boston.com/food-dining/restaurants/2014/12/09/harvard-business-school-professor-goes-war-over-worth-chinese-food/KfMaEhab6uUY1COCnTbrXP/story.html#comments[/url] The email exchanges are in the link. Personally, I think the Harvard guy is a prick.

Associate professor of business at Harvard? Well if he knows a damn thing about business, he knows that businesses thrive by sometimes operating on good faith, not by following the book down to the letter. He's being a prick for the sake of being a prick. It's still kind of funny, though.

What a fuckin douchebag.

wow a fucking professor making shit loads of money working at harvard, and then complaining about [b]4 FUCKING DOLLARS?[/b] seriously people are bitching about everything these days.

[QUOTE] ...where he teaches in the [B]Negotiation[/B], Organizations & Markets unit.[/QUOTE] oh boy

[QUOTE=AJ10017;46694288]wow a fucking professor making shit loads of money working at harvard, and then complaining about [b]4 FUCKING DOLLARS?[/b] seriously people are bitching about everything these days.[/QUOTE] Money is money.

What the fuck man. its 4 dollars. not 400

oy vey

[QUOTE=Richoxen;46694378]Money is money.[/QUOTE] No, four dollars isn't a lot of money.

Using your power for evil.

[QUOTE=BusterBluth;46694409]No, four dollars isn't a lot of money.[/QUOTE] That's for him to decide. It's his money. If he wants to go to war over 4$ regardless of how silly that sounds, i'd say hes well within his right.

[QUOTE=Richoxen;46694423]That's for him to decide. It's his money. If he wants to go to war over 4$ regardless of how silly that sounds, i'd say hes well within his right.[/QUOTE] His right to be a major asshole.

[QUOTE=JCDentonUNATCO;46694447]His right to be a major asshole.[/QUOTE] Theres nothing wrong with being frugal. Even if you're already rich.

Such a stuck up twat.

Jeez, they even offered to give him most of his money back as soon as he complained.

[QUOTE=BusterBluth;46694409]No, four dollars isn't a lot of money.[/QUOTE] But it's still money. Also: [IMG]http://p.o0bc.com/rf/image_700w/Boston/2011-2020/2014/12/09/Boston.com/BCOM/Images/whos_who2.jpg[/IMG] Also again: [IMG]http://cache.boston.com/stuff/2014/12/09/email1ad.png[/IMG] Also more: All of these emails are conjoined, but I was going to point out the tripling part. This Edelman guy knows his shit.

[QUOTE=AJ10017;46694288]wow a fucking professor making shit loads of money working at harvard, and then complaining about [b]4 FUCKING DOLLARS?[/b] seriously people are bitching about everything these days.[/QUOTE] To be fair, regardless of how much money is being taken, letting somebody just steal your money isn't something that you should do. However, after reading some of the emails, the guy does seem like an ass. The people had seemed sorry, and were willing to pay him back the money, but then he made a huge ass deal out of it.

[quote]where he teaches in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets unit.[/quote] Real good negotiating there dude You totally handled that professionally and politely [editline]12th December 2014[/editline] All he had to do was say "There was an inconsistency in pricing, please can you refund me the difference" and be done with it And maybe "Oh please can you update your site"

The owner of the place seems so chill, I'd probably start getting pissed if someone did that to me.

You know, I wonder how people would be reacting if it was a normal person being upset at the overcharge

Its funny how the restaurant owner goes "Oh yes, let me give you back the 3 dollars" and then the nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles are launched: "It was 4 dollars. Not 3. 4. It strikes me bla bla bla....Boston....seriously....give me back my 4 dollars biatch blablabla" No one knows who fired first.The details are trivial and pointless, the reasons, as always, purely human ones. Pricks, pricks never change.

I hope the judge is reasonable and immediately dismisses the case and order the lawyer to pay a fine for wasting everybody's time.

[QUOTE=Doneeh;46694487]But it's still money. Also: [IMG]http://p.o0bc.com/rf/image_700w/Boston/2011-2020/2014/12/09/Boston.com/BCOM/Images/whos_who2.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] Just thought I'd post this from Edelman's site too: [IMG]http://i.gyazo.com/1c9e234ea6653409833f0521dffff233.png[/IMG]

I don't get why they didn't just offer him the 4 dollar refund immediately. When they clearly admitted that the pricing was wrong they don't offer four, but three dollars? It's like saying "yeah we fucked up but we're only going to pay most of it back".

To be honest, This is what I would do as well. Sure $4 is $4 but its not okay to rip people off. I've made a big deal about the price being 50 cents more before.

[QUOTE=Best4bond;46694695]To be honest, This is what I would do as well. Sure $4 is $4 but its not okay to rip people off. I've made a big deal about the price being 50 cents more before.[/QUOTE] But they weren't trying to rip anybody off, they charged him the in store price. The website was out of date and this guy was a dick about it. It's obvious that the website isn't maintained by them. They prolly paid somebody to make them a website and it was a one time deal.

[QUOTE=Doneeh;46694644]Just thought I'd post this from Edelman's site too: [IMG]http://i.gyazo.com/1c9e234ea6653409833f0521dffff233.png[/IMG][/QUOTE] Covering his ass. No chance he would have apologized if this story wasn't published.

What a fucking rich prick

[QUOTE=jiggu;46694676]I don't get why they didn't just offer him the 4 dollar refund immediately. When they clearly admitted that the pricing was wrong they don't offer four, but three dollars? It's like saying "yeah we fucked up but we're only going to pay most of it back".[/QUOTE] Seemed to me like a simple mistake. It was probably really laboring for the guy to deal with this dude's massive walls of jargon and he forgot that it was $4 along the way. I must say, I respect his patience a lot. I don't know a lot of people who would remain that calm and polite in the face of such a barrage of dickishness. That's some ironclad customer service.

[QUOTE=Best4bond;46694695]To be honest, This is what I would do as well. Sure $4 is $4 but its not okay to rip people off. [b]I've made a big deal about the price being 50 cents more before.[/b][/QUOTE] hint: you're the type of person that people don't like