Ran Duan helps run his parents' small Chinese restaurants. As part and parcel of any business, customer complaints are normal, but he probably had no idea how trivial and painfully annoying this complaint from a Harvard Professor would be.

On the left, there's Ben Edelman. He's a lawyer, and has four degrees from Harvard University. He's also an associate professor at Harvard Business School. On the right, there's Ran Duan.

Last week, he ordered food from Duan's Chinese restaurant, Sichuan Garden. Everything was good, except he noticed an issue, so he pointed it out to the restaurant:

Duan replied, apologizing for the confusion:

But Edelman was not satisfied. Now he wants a refund 3 times of what he was overcharged.

Duan acknowledges the situation, and agrees to refund the surcharge, but not 4 times the amount. $3 was probably a typo.

Then Edelman got a little anal. He decided to take it to the next level. Remember, this is over $4.

Duan decides to let this be in the hands of the authorities, instead of being bullied around by someone like Edelman. This is his reply:

Duan is even kind enough to let Edelman know their website has been updated, and a couple more things. 

Enraged, Edelman decided to fire back:

By now, Duan is already sick of Edelman losing sleep over $4. So he replies Edelman like this:

Not wanting to let this go, Edelman goes on and instead of $12, he wants a 50% refund on his bill now. 

Duan has been courteous all this while, never sounding antagonistic. He replies Edelman this way:

For now, Sichuan Garden's website is down thanks to the publicity of the story. The public also seems to be supporting Duan too.

Even the City of Boston decided to support Duan on their Facebook page by saying this:

Do you think Edelman went a tad far? From $4 to $12 to 50% of his bill. What do you think?