Privileged asshole is privileged.
And an asshole.
Ben Edelman is a creep who trolls small businesses around Boston for fun. Iâm really glad this story is getting more attention; I hope Mr Edelmanâs legacy is âthat asshole lawyer who tried to get the city to cite a much-loved mom & pop restaurant for $4â.
Harvard Business School is not at all happy with how this reflects on them. They almost immediately started a âgive $4 for the hungryâ campaign to deflect the bad press.
Couldnât he instead go after a more deserving target? Picking on a small restaurant owner seems like dick move.
If instead he decided to use his legal/financial kung-fu against the predatory billing practices of Verizon, Comcast, or AT&T, that would be heroic.
Is âChrist, what an asshole.â still a thing? Because, Christ, what an asshole.
didnât see the tag at the bottom of the post, so I came here to leave it myself #christwhatanasshole
For some reason, every person I encounter from Harvard is an entitled asshole in one way or another. Maybe thereâs something about the place that attracts the type⊠maybeâŠ
Christ what an asshole, indeed. Sexy chef with big arms, meet exceptionally punchable face.
We donât have the full details, but it seems like heâs asking for 50% off the total bill in response to the error? Does anyone know where that figure comes from (besides his pompous derriere)?
Itâs perfectly reasonable to realize youâve been overcharged and ask for your money back, or even to return the food and ask for a full refund. Any reasonable person in this position would just call them up, ask for the difference to be refunded, and let them know the prices on their website are out of date. Done, 5 minutes out of your life and youâve helped someone out.
Oh my god, Iâm so pleased that the restauranteur is just going to wait for the authorities to arrive and handle the situation. Edelman got owned.
He initially wanted triple âdamagesâ, per Massachusetts law.
And also, heâs an asshole.
First he asked for the overcharged amount to be refunded (which the restaurant immediately agreed to). Then he decided that he was owed âtreble damagesâ â $12 â and ânotified the authoritiesâ. Then he decided that he was owed 50% because of his time and trouble.
Totally. This is how I saw the situation. There was no dispute here, they guy said âOK, I agree you should get a refund and we will correct the menu pricesâ. I would consider this matter finished.
it probably wonât hurt the restaurantâs business, and a lot more people will come to know who the asshole is.
Ha ha, tenured Harvard professor tries to shake down a small business owner for a few bucks. Soon to meet 4Chan.
Streisand, we summon thee!
That said, small businesses running shitty websites is a huge frustration and Iâd love if they could all do a better job keeping them current. If not that, Iâd be content with âfunctional.â
I get that most folks just plain donât (and donât want to) understand HTML but if youâre gonna spend the money to put one up you really ought to treat it with some kind of seriousness.
Apparently, heâs in the department that is supposed to be teaching negotiationsâŠSo we know what kind of âI WIN! But these people wonât ever answer our phone calls again,â negotiators theyâre trying to graduate.
Edelman is wrong on the law here. It doesnât apply if the restaurant immediately offers restitution, which it did. The law is like this because if it wasnât people like Edelman would go around looking for shops making small billing errors and bury them with frivolous lawsuits.
From the article: âHis uncle Peter, a law professor, was an assistant secretary of the Health and Human Services Department in the Clinton administration before resigning to protest a law that required welfare recipients to work. His father, Daniel, is a civil rights attorney specializing in employment discrimination; his mother, Toby, is a lawyer who focuses on preventing abuse in nursing homes.â
His family must be so proud.
And yetâŠthe article goes on to mention ââŠhis friend Aaron Swartz, the programmer and free-information activist who killed himself last year while facing charges that he broke into the Massachusetts Institute of Technologyâs network to download millions of research articles. Edelman and Swartz worked at Harvardâs Berkman center and were protĂ©gĂ©s there of legal scholar Lawrence Lessig.â
Does Edelman just have no sense of proportion?
