Mr. Duan has offered just about everything a reasonable business owner would offer in a case like this.

I would strongly advise him to make his next email reply "So sue me." Then hope the shithead does.

I can well imagine what even a small claims court judge would have to say to Edelman and it would be pithy, pungent, and rude.

"Prices subject to change without notice"

That covers him for the increased cost of everything from rice to soybean oil to fresh water fish that result in temporary or permanent increases on the printed menu.

However, even though he didn't consult you first, he did offer to reimburse Fuckwit for the difference between website cost and restaurant cost.

I'd have sent a cabbie over to Edelman's house with a sack of $4.00 in loose pennies.

"website prices has been out of date for some time".

I wonder how this Harvard jackwagon would like to be inconvenienced.

I hate to profile, but based on his photo, he even looks like a douchebag.

The irony can be cut with a knife - I hope the public humiliation and irreparable damage to his reputation was worth his time. lmfao

What a dick! Guess Mr. Smartypants lawyer showed that restaurateur a thing or two about the law. I guess being a law professor at Harvard doesn't keep him busy enough.

which apparently makes him think he has the right to be a total douche to a small business trying its best to straighten out his complaint. I hope the restaurant gets a ton of business and I hope Professor Assweasel gets the ration of shit he deserves.

Back in the '80s a coworker of mine used to say that everyone was afraid of the USSR, but what was going to ruin the US was Harvard Business School. How right he was.

This guy is a good example of what your coworker was describing.

Just an evil thought....

Or get some MIT guys (and gals) on the case. Their pranks are legendary.

I have a relative who's an MIT alum.
He used to tell me stories...

The reconstructed VW in a dorm is one of the best-known ones, although it has the whiff of urban legend to it.

They once put a police cruiser -- with flashing lights -- on top of the Great Dome.

he's a bully!

..... when some douche bag lawyer got fired over something similar. It was over a coupon he won at a charity event - he and his douche bag lawyer coworkers decided to crucify the donor restaurant because they didn't follow the statute and print the disclaimer/limits on the FRONT of the coupon (the disclaimer was on the back). When the newspaper picked it up the coworkers, like good little weasels, blamed the main instigator and got him fired.

I only hope this d-bag gets the same result.

In my business, I try to avoid "business school" graduates if at all possible. Nothing but trouble. How do I know? When they work it in to the conversation. They can't help it. I used to work with a repig that always wanted to tell me about what he learned in MBA school "you can't tax a business because they will just pass it along to the consumer bla bla bla". My answer: then why don't they quit their bitchin' about taxes and shut the fuck up and pay?

He's not going to get fired over this.

late at night, as Professor Edelman is walking to his vehicle alone in a darkened parking lot, having his priorities suddenly adjusted with greater concerns than a $4 difference on his takeout tab

Because if the law allows what he is doing, the law should not be respected with respect to him. There are few types of individuals who are more poisonous to a society than people who use the law to do wrongs that no law ever intended to allow.

The Harvard guy is being somewhat childish, but his basic point is right: businesses can't advertise one price and charge another, no matter how small they are. But a refund and a change to the website should be sufficient. OTOH, claiming you're too small to follow state rules is as bad as claiming you're too big to follow them.

Hundred? Thousands?

That's all fraud earnings.

Perhaps thousands of dollars of it.

"Fuck it, it's $3 for my Chinese food. Whatever."

Dozens of orders a night? Hundreds a week? For how long? A year? Three years? Say they overcharged merely 100 people a week the same amount: $4. That's $400 a week. That's $20,800 a year, defrauded from people in the community.

No doubt, the guy seems like a jerk. But false price fraud for small amounts is ubiquitous and pernicious, though. This small business was engaging in it, even if they weren't doing it intentionally. How many people would pay $8.95 for beef and broccoli, but not $10.95? That's a price fraud, and it's illegal.

It's robbery. And they were doing it how many times a week? Dozens? Hundreds?

Your argument rests on the idea that most people look at a web site and then order. Wrong. Most business comes from regular customers who know exactly what they want and don't even bother consulting the menu.

In fact, if you read the rest of the correspondence, the blame for this error can rest on the fact that the restaurant owner did not call the web design company to update the prices. This is common with small businesses who hire a company to design their site. This work is not inexpensive and calling someone to update the prices is not something that occurs to restaurant operations people. They're restaurant operations people, not marketing people.

Your projections are highly unlikely. Furthermore, they assume people just pony up, and they don't. People are pretty sharp about the restaurant tab and call the restaurant on it when they need to.



Cher

court, one with a very light docket, to award him three times his claimed damages. If the judge does not laugh at him he may actually be rewarded. However demanding of the restaurant owner, three times your perceived loss by citing a statute has him posing as plaintiff, judge and sheriff.

Frat boy thinks he IS the court and his word bears the authority of the court.

What a prissy little smart ass he must have been as an undergrad, if he is such a pedantic asshole now.

is the program or unit where he supposedly teaches.

Sue them!

He's faculty.



http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=417579

Refusing service is the right of all businesses, unless it relates to a constitutionally protected class. Assholes are not considered a protected class.

Loved this comment from the OP's link:

He fell right into that one!



Cher

One year.

Edelman makes a public apology for his ridiculous, petty behavior:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/harvard-professor-apologizes-restaurant-threat-4-article-1.2041032

snip

An associate Harvard Business school professor has apologized after ruthlessly threatening a Chinese restaurant with legal action when it overcharged his $53 meal — by $4.

snip



Cher

on edit: is it any wonder lawyers are hated like they are?

The guy is a world-class douchebag

http://www.boston.com/food-dining/restaurants/2014/12/10/there-more-edelman-did-this-before-and-worse/00mTW39jcyXb3VNHZoXEYN/story.html?p1=Must_Reads_hp

More of the same.

That's just incredible!!


Cher