This. Exactly this.
I agree that HBS-guy is being a complete jerk. At the same time, if I, as an average person, ordered a bunch of food and discovered after the fact that every item on the menu was coincidentally $1 more than advertised, I might be a little suspicious. I’d be satisfied to get my four bucks back, but I’d definitely be irritated that I even had to ask.
Come on, try to have a little compassion, folks. What are the chances this professor is neurotypical? His obsessive tendencies around correcting mathematical mistakes shouldn’t mean we ostracize him.
Instead, let’s try to come together as a community and seek a resolution that benefits everyone: ostracizing him for that dead-eyed little smirk he does.
Namaste.
Exactly. Ran Duan comes across as so much the better person here. Maybe Harvard Business School should be asking him to teach Negotiation?
Would you notify the authorities and ask for three times what you were overcharged as compensation?
I’d probably just never go back and badmouth the restaurant on the internet. And then refuse to take any of the repeated phone calls from the restaurant in subsequent weeks following the review going up on Yelp. Speaking hypothetically, of course.
Actually, he has gone after bigger fish: he is known for discovering and publicizing how Facebook was sharing personal info, and how Google was capturing data (even when you disabled it) and how they were changing the color coding of ads to make them harder to differentiate from other results.
On one hand it’s kind of a dick move to go after a local small business, on the other hand going after improper business tactics on the internet is basically what he does, so he is at least treating all perpetrators equally.
Nope. Like I said, I’d be satisfied to get my money back. Four dollars is only worth so much aggravation.
I’ve worked in the food industry, so I’m sympathetic to stuff going wrong and understand that mistakes happen. OTOH, I will totally boycott places that irk me past a certain threshold. There’s a Dave & Busters here that I’ve refused to return to going on something like eight years, now.
A decade ago here in Winnipeg, a University of Manitoba professor lost his appeal of a traffic ticket for running a stop sign. He refused to pay the ticket because he thinks the word “stop” on a stop sign is too vague and that the government should set precisely calibrated standards of what it means to “stop.”
So it’s possible he’s not an irredeemable asshole.
I hope he’ll get a clue from the shitstorm that has blown up around this incident.
Lesson: Never punch down.
I asked a bookstore owner why he didn’t have a phone number listed. It’s a ways off the beaten path, he said, and people who called the line to ask about a book, we’re taking time away from spending attention on the customers who were physically present. Real life trumps the electronic version. I’d rather a restraunt try to please it’s regular customers, and let the word spread, than advertise to the whole world so they can expand and spread and be in every city.
As long as people are assholes, Christ, what an asshole will be a thing!
Like a lot of people probably, I came from the position of “Christ, what an asshole” when I first saw this story. Then I read the entire email chain, then I read more about him and the restaurant.
I don’t think he is an irredeemable asshole. I don’t think the restaurant was deliberately ripping off customers. I don’t think Edelman did any harm to their business (he even said the food was delicious, and I can see people who think he’s a jerk going there just out of pity to the owners and/or to spite Edelman), so no harm no foul. I too get annoyed when restaurants advertize different prices than what they actually charge, I just don’t have a law degree and any recourse except remembering not to eat there again.
There’s a Chinese place near me that used to sell orders of ten fried wontons as an appetizer. At some point (well over three years ago) they decided to scale an order back from ten wontons to eight, for the same price. The website to this day says “ten wontons” when you place your order online.
I’ve emailed them about this discrepancy, I’ve told them on the phone when ordering, and no cares enough to change it. I’m not going to sic the authorities on them or anything, but jesus - no one’s twisting your arm to run a website in the first place. If you see fit to advertise, have the decency to make sure your details are right.
One of my best friends is a Harvard alum and is one of the sweetest, most caring and brilliant people I know. He is a professor of neuroscience at a small, well regarded upstate NY college. I asked him once how it was to attend Harvard. He drew a sort of saddened, empathetic face before telling me that he felt sympathy for a lot of the other people he met. The way he tells it, there is a tremendous amount of pressure and posturing among people who are, in reality, very young adults trying to live up to unrealistic expectations that are usually not their own. He expressed that it was an extremely lonely and misanthropic environment. Not at all the answer I expected.
But this guy… Christ, what an asshole.
In managerial training, there was a spectrum of employee effectiveness that broke down along the lines of…
It would be enough to say “something is wrong and I’ve been affected - please give me a refund. I’m also a lawyer and because I love your delicious food, I highly suggest you should fix this because it could really cause a legal nightmare.”
If he’s really a go getter, he could have whatever gov’t agency that regulates MA restaurants send out a notice about accuracy of online menu prices.
And if he’s REALLY a go getter, he could create some type of widget that helps restaurant owners easily update their online menus.
Treble damages would have made it $16, no?
Exists in an ecosystem where he benefits from things escalating to legal matters, and so escalates all his disputes to legal matters. Or christ what an asshole.
Seems to me that both sides acted like buttheads, but only one side was right.
No, the original amount was $4. Treble (triple) damages would be $12 since he refused the original $4.
It is interesting to compare Boing Boing’s take on the story with the event as described on Consumerist:http://consumerist.com/2014/12/10/when-you-overcharge-a-harvard-business-professor-4-dont-blow-him-off/
Their version is much more like:
I was feeling much more sympathetic to the Harvard guy, since I read the Consumerist version first. When I was a lowly college dweeb, getting hit with a four buck penalty had consequences. Yeah, he’s in a whole different realm. But being charged extra is something that few people I know tolerate well.
Who picks takeout based mainly on price? It’s not going to cost that much no matter what. If it’s a big issue, call and ask. This restaurant – and maybe most low-price restaurants – should just take prices off their website. Way simpler. That’s really the takeaway here.
