Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy

As I mentioned last week, all customer facing people at Jigsaw were pressure tested after some technical problems with a release. As I often do in these times, I picked one communication from a particularly unreasonable person and wrote a response without my filter on, which I then shared with our company for a laugh but DID NOT SEND. The correspondence below is between me and a CIO of a medium sized financial services firm who wants his information removed from Jigsaw. Please note that his company has at least 10 people that are Jigsaw members!

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From: CIO Financial Services Company [mailto:someguy@sanctimonious.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 11:36 AM
To: Garth Moulton
Subject: Contact Information

Garth,

Please provide me with the contact information for [Jigsaw Screen Name].  I am interested in posting his/her information online so that they too can receive annoying cold calls from vendors that they would never do business with.  It is only appropriate that I share the experience, especially since are clearly benefiting from selling my information.

[CIO’s First Name]

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From: Garth Moulton [mailto:garth@jigsaw.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 4:38 PM
To: CIO guy
Cc: Kristine Rogers
Subject: RE: Contact Information

Hi ______,

I am sorry to hear that you don’t approve of Jigsaw. Please understand that you do have some options, neither of which is possible with other data companies that no doubt have your info as a CIO of a company with a public website.

1. You can post a free form note to anyone who views your contact profile on Jigsaw. Tell them you hate cold calls, hate Jigsaw, whatever you like. Simply click the “Am I in Jigsaw” link and follow instructions for Setting Contact Preferences.

2. You can have your contact removed from Jigsaw by contacting Kristine Rogers and following a few procedures. I have copied her above.

Jigsaw does not provide the contact information of its members.

Thanks.

Garth

PS- We subject ourselves to the same scrutiny as the contacts in our database, as you probably found my contact information on the site…

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From: CIO Guy
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 2:40 PM
To: Garth Moulton
Cc: Kristine Rogers
Subject: RE: Contact Information

Garth – you are on your blog pimping your product – which is how I got your address.  And I do mean pimping.

Kristin – please start the process of removing me from your site.

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Mr. [CIO Last Name],

Thank you for providing me with a clarification as to where you obtained my email address and for your unblinking assessment of my blog. I was under the impression that the majority of my audience was sales people, but it is good to see that crotchety old technology types are accessing it as well. I assume you have a director of IT that keeps the computers running at 15 locations while you engage with lowly blog pimps like me?

Since we created Jigsaw in 2003 we have received approximately 500 requests for removal of information (out of 8.5 million), and the irony never escapes me that it is almost without fail top executives from companies that make their living by using the very information that we provide. How do the sales people at the high and mighty [medium sized financial services company] obtain the contact information (as well as highly private info about net wealth, etc)? Divine intervention? I think not. More likely your company purchases this information or obtains through a “partnership” with some other financial institution. Probably the same place that sends my 18 month old daughter credit card offers.

And since we are calling each other names (sticks and stones, dill bag), let’s look at your company’s relationship to the world’s oldest profession. On your website your PR department brags of “creating innovative mortgage backed security solutions” as late as April of last year. Aren’t you guys just the pimp for the mortgage broker whores selling subprime loans? Maybe ‘money launderer’ is a better analogy.

Either way, Pot, this is Kettle, and guess what- you’re black.

Sincerely,

Garth Moulton

PS Pimpin’ ain’t easy.

Comments

[Fred]

Garth, that was really funny and on the money. I have found it's usually the technical guys complaining, yet they're the first ones to be less than scrupulous many times.

[Derek Bough]

Garth,
Great post. When I first found this site, I was a little skeptical about how people would feel about having their information shared with the world. What I decided was that when I went to networking events and met dozens of people, most of whom were not a prospect for me or I for them, rather than bury their business card in a desk drawer and forget it, I'd actually be doing them a favor by putting their information out there to be viewed by individuals who would be more likely to need their product or service. 500 out of 8.5 million? Hmm. That means there's only a 1 in 17,000 chance they'll be mad.

Derek

[Garth]

Well, to be fair, that is just the people who have bothered to contact Jigsaw and get removed. There are probably more people out there who don't want their contact information on Jigsaw but are more in touch with the reality that their work only, business card information is available to a set of people beyond their own hand choosing.
In a world where
1) I get baby magazine offers two weeks after my wife has a kid
2) $19.95 gets you a credit profile and SSN # for just about anyone
3) I can find pictures of your college kid wearing ladies underwear through the social networking crawling sites

I don't see what the big deal is with business card data. But maybe that's just me Pimpin' on the Point.

[Jake]

For those that don't know Garth, he loves the "Pot/Kettle/you're black" retort -- if I had a nickle...
Garth, thanks for keeping it real. If you didn't nobody would read your blog. And there really isn't much sadder than an unread blog, is there?

[Garth]

a college graduate that can't spell "nickel?"

Jake's right- I am ashamed to say that I lifted that line from a "Friends" episode and never looked back. But I learned about pimpin from Ice-T, so I'm not all soft.

[Nathan Cain]

Freaking hilarious! Don't you wish you could have sent that email?

What did you actually send?

[Lurker]

This is fantastic! Keep on pimpin'.