California Sandwiches employee distraught Google won't remove offensive review
Carmella Ciccone has spent over 20 years working at California Sandwiches, serving hundreds of customers a day, some critical, but it's a Google review of her restaurant, which she says has a personal attack on her, that has left her in tears.
"I didn't really need that. I'm doing my job, and I don't know what I did to him to be like that, to attack me, my face. I'm just very upset," she told CBC News during an interview at the restaurant, which is located at 3701 Chesswood Dr. near Sheppard Avenue and Allen Road.
Getting the review taken down, despite Google's guidelines stating "reviews that represent personal attacks on others" would be removed, has proven to be difficult so far.
'He didn't have to attack me like that'
The review was posted last week by someone identifying himself as Jeff Chambers, and in addition to complaining about a steak sandwich, he also wrote: "The owner woman with the face job etc. has a very nauseating face that just gets on your nerves when you look at her. Its one of those annoying faces if u know what I mean... haha."
While the review didn't name who he was talking about, with only 12 employees who are often in the same role, Ciccone and her coworkers felt the post was about her.
"I made his sandwich. He didn't have to attack me like that. There was no reason to do that, Ciccone said. "I'm just trying to do my job. I was just doing what it was that they taught me to do."
'Like another mother'
Christopher Bernaudo works with Ciccone and says when she found out about the review, he decided to take action to get it removed from Google.
"Carmella has been here for a long time. She has been practically like another mother, so when I found out that she finally found out, that's when I kind of got really pissed off," he said.
But Bernaudo soon found himself in a David and Goliath battle with the Internet giant and hasn't been able to get far.
The company said in an email that after looking at the review and investigating its source, that it doesn't violate their review guidelines, but Bernaudo believes it does.
"They told me there's no personal or confidential information shown, so it doesn't count, but it doesn't say that there, it just says 'personal attack,'" Bernaudo said.
Bernaudo isn't alone in his fight to get nasty reviews off the web. Last year, a small business in B.C. faced a similar fight against Google, where a reviewer called its employees "racist and autistic." Google removed the review only after being contacted by CBC News.
When contacted about Bernaudo's complaint, Google told CBC News that they're looking into the post.
