Nanaimo, B.C. Canada – Securco Services Inc, run by owner Steve Kelly, had to take Google to task when the search giant failed to remove hurtful comments on their webpage.
Securco has been operating happily in Nanaimo for nearly 40 years. Then about a month ago three nasty reviews popped up on their page.
Go Public, the investigation series of news outlet CBC News, originally posted the slander in their report:
“Their sales rep, Monte, must have been runner up to be village idiot for the City of Nanaimo. Because that is clearly the level of knowledge and expertise that he brings. The office is run by a generally racist woman called Shereen and she has the attention span of a wood bug. The owners Steve and Ian are disconnected from reality to the point of autism…”
All three reviews were posted under the fake name John Bailey.
Owner Steve Kelly was horrified and found the comment concerning autism disrespectful. Even more disrespectful was how Google handled the ordeal.
After failing to find a matching name in the company’s records, Kelly now suspects it may be a unhappy customer whose unpaid bill is being sent to collections.
That was when office manager Cherene Shea realized that the comments shouldn’t have been allowed to post in the first place. According to Google’s own policy, reviews that contain personal attacks, or are posted by fictitious identities, are not allowed and will be removed.
She contacted Google with her complaint and invited them to search the company’s records for the poster. After the largest search engine in the world’s promised investigation, only one review was removed. Google contended more positive ones should be posted to even things out.
But after questioning from CBC’s Go Public investigation team, Google agreed to remove the hateful review containing autism, adding that there is always an element of judgement when deciding which reviews should stay.
Contributed by Audrey L. Hollingshead.
Source: Rosa Marchitelli on the CBC British Columbia news website: Google balks at removing reviews that label workers ‘racist and autistic’