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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 e-mail 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 Ben 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 Boston.com:
"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."
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