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. 
 
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 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.) 
 
 Surprised yet? We were, too. 
 
 In addition to teaching at HBS, Edelman also operates a consulting practice where he advises clients like Microsoft, the NFL, the New York Times, and Universal Music on “preventing and detecting online fraud (especially advertising fraud).” (That’s from Edelman’s own website, which it seems safe to presume is always kept up to date.) 
 
 He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, and a law degree from Harvard Law School. 
 
 Ran Duan moved to the U.S. from China when he was 3-years-old. His father had hoped to support the family with a career as an opera singer, but when that didn’t pan out, Duan says “like all Chinese families we decided to open up a restaurant.” 
 
 Sichuan Garden opened its doors in Brookline in the early 1990s. A second location followed in Woburn. 
 
 Despite the restaurant’s successful expansion, Duan admittted that Sichuan does not have the budget for teams devoted to public relations or a website that is updated as regularly as it should be. 
 
 Screenshot of Sichuan Garden’s website as of December 9. 
 
 “I personally respond to every complaint and try to handle every situation personally,” said Duan, who was profiled by Boston Magazine in June and featured in GQ Magazine last month as “America’s Most Imaginative Bartender.” 
 
 The exchange with Edelman stood out to Duan. “I have worked so hard to make my family proud and to elevate our business. It just broke my heart.” 
 
 Edelman told Boston.com that investigating pricing discrepancies by neighborhood restaurants isn’t something he does every day. 
 
 “I mostly look for malfeasance by larger companies,” he said. “It certainly seems like a situation that could call for legal redress. But this is a small business in the town where I reside.” 
 
 As for the troves of angry customers likely looking for recourse? Edelman pointed Boston.com to Massachusetts General Law, Section XV, Chapter 93A, Section 9. (Translation: If you didn’t pass the Massachusetts bar, but still feel as though you must do SOMETHING, then just gather all the receipts you’ve saved, along with all screenshots you took and saved of the website menu in case that dinner order ever ended up in court, find a lawyer whose fees aren’t likely to exceed the few dollars you’re seeking, and ... voila?) 
 
 As for Edelman, he alerted town officials in Brookline about the matter, but told Boston.com he doesn’t expect them to take action. He plans to “take a few days” before deciding whether to pursue any further legal action against the restaurant. 
 
 Oh and the food? Edelman admitted: “It was delicious.” 

 Patricia Drury/ Flickr 
 
 A Harvard Business School professor is enraged that a local Chinese restaurant reportedly overcharged him $US4 for his takeout dinner and is now threatening legal action against the self-described “mum and pop” business. 
 
 Boston.com originally posted the email exchange between HBS associate professor Ben Edelman and Ran Duan, who manages The Baldwin Bar in his parents’ restaurant Sichuan Garden. The Chinese restaurant has two locations in the Boston suburbs, Woburn and Brookline Village. 
 
 According to the emails, Edelman ordered $US53.35 worth of takeout from Sichuan Garden for dinner last week but was charged $US4 more than he expected to be. He reached out to the restaurant, which told him its website was out-of-date but that it would be updated as soon as possible. 
 
 Via Boston.com, here’s how Edelman responded: 
 
 Thanks for the reply and for explaining what went wrong. We enjoyed the food, but we don’t need to trouble you for an updated menu. Under Massachusetts law it turns out to be a serious violation to advertise one price and charge a different price. I urge you to cease this practice immediately. If you don’t know how to update your web site, you could remove the web site altogether until you are able to correct the error. In the interim, I suggest that Sichuan Garden refund me three times the amount of the overcharge. The tripling reflects the approach provided under the Massachusetts consumer protection statute, MGL 93a, wherein consumers broadly receive triple damages for certain intentional violations. 
 
 Duan offered to refund Edelman $US3 and “honour the website price,” he wrote. Edelman replied that he had “already referred this matter to applicable authorities in order to attempt to compel your restaurant to identify all consumers affected and to provide refunds to all of them, or in any event to assure that an appropriate sanction is applied as provided by law.” 
 
 The pair exchanged several more emails about the overcharge and the potential actions of the local authorities. 
 
 “I was 100% compliant with him, and I’m not really sure what he wants,” Duan told Business Insider. The restaurateur and bartender stressed that he’s in the hospitality business, so that even with a hard-to-handle costumer, “you still have to be professional.” 
 
 Edelman sent Business Insider the following statement: 
 
 I think the Boston.com piece totally misses the benefit that all diligent consumers provide in looking for overcharges and other errors. 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. If you look at my other work, e.g. http://www.benedelman.org/airfare-advertising/, you’ll see I’ve been pretty diligent in holding large companies accountable for their false statements of price and other attempts to overcharge passengers. Should all small businesses get a free pass? Some people seem to think so, I wonder if that really makes sense. Notably, though not emphasised in the Boston.com piece, the restaurant at issue knew the website prices had been “out of date for quite some time.” At what point should they do something about it? I’m pleased to have at least gotten the problem fixed for the benefit of others. 
 
 You can read the original emails in full at Boston.com >> 
 
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– A Boston-area Chinese restaurant charging $1 more per plate than it advertises on its online menu may have served the wrong guy—a Harvard Business School professor specializing in online advertising fraud who wasted no time in pulling out the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Statute and threatening legal action. According to a lengthy email exchange published by the Boston Globe, Ben Edelman is seriously agitated, and though the mom-and-pop shop only overcharged him $4, he says it's the principle. "If you look at my other work ... you'll see I've been pretty diligent in holding large companies accountable for their false statements of price and other attempts to overcharge passengers," he tells Business Insider. "Should all small businesses get a free pass?" The restaurant, Sichuan Garden, appears to have thus far complied with Edelman's requests, including refunding him $12 (three times what he was overcharged) and updating the online menu to reflect actual prices. Ran Duan, who tends bar at the restaurant for his parents, recently told the Globe: "I personally respond to every complaint and try to handle every situation personally. ... I have worked so hard to make my family proud and to elevate our business. [This exchange] just broke my heart." It just so happens that GQ Magazine featured Duan last month, hailing him as "America's Most Imaginative Bartender." (Speaking of overcharging, Sprint is being accused of padding this bill—to the tune of $21 million.)