Editor's Page
....time is on our side!
January 2000
The first month of the new millenium marks the third anniversary of the Shimadzu Consumer
Alerts homepage since its premiere three full years ago. While it's an exciting time to
look forward, it is also a great time to reflect on some of our more noteworthy
accomplishments during the last year of the previous millennium. In December of 1999, we
recorded our 100,000th unique visitor to the Shimadzu Consumer Alerts website. And this
doesn't include the countless recurring visits that we continue to receive from Shimadzu
Scientific Instruments (Columbia, MD, USA) and Shimadzu Corporation (Kyoto, Japan).
Usually twice a month, their IP addresses (208.212.50.* and smzk075.shimadzu.co.jp,
respectively) appear in our server logs. So it is logical to conclude that Shimadzu is
addicted to eavesdropping on the latest embarrassing truths/revelations as unveiled on
this homepage.... talk about paranoia!
During 1999, we continued to make significant inroads informing laboratory decision makers
worldwide about "the other side of Shimadzu." So much so that Shimadzu
played a cat and mouse game with us at the beginning of the 1999
year. They proceeded to petition several servers that hosted our website in a concerted
effort to censor the content and presence of our homepage. They did not succeed! We were
well-prepared for Shimadzu's escapades and we continue to remain vigilant. Too bad that
they are not this persistent when solving their numerous hardware/software product
problems and glitches! We continue to add new permanent URLs (eg.
http://shimadzu.home-page.org, http://shimadzu.is-crazy.com) which divert inquiring minds
to the real truth about the corporate lowlifes at Shimadzu. And we continue to index them
as well.... visit www.yahoo.com and look for the search term "shimadzu"
inclusively.
An explosive interoffice memorandum highlighting numerous problems
in the field authored by Shimadzu Regional Manager Terry L. Adams has continued to amaze
our readers. But this was topped by the story we ran in early October 1999 entitled "Shimadzu GC Blows Up." We had caught wind of Shimadzu's
prospective LC/GC article (published October 1999) back in the late Spring of 1999.
Shortly thereafter, we were forwarded a note describing in detail the incendiary nature of
some Shimadzu gas chromatographs. As one can imagine, Shimadzu was not pleased when we
beat them to the punch while pulling another skeleton from their closet! They reacted by
engaging in a wild campaign of censoring/cancelling all references to their
faulty/defective products on the world wide web. Unfortunately, they never admitted to the
problem publicly because they didn't want to deal with the flying fur (ie. liability) much
less the flying GC shrapnel. Can you say irresponsible?
As a direct result of Shimadzu's on-going censoring efforts/activities, a public directive
was issued instructing Shimadzu corporate management to cease and
desist in early November 1999. And thanks to our server logs, we can definitively
prove that Shimadzu got the message! The press release was disseminated via several forums
including thru a network of over 6,000 communication professionals. This fulfills a
promise we made last year that we would initiate an aggressive campaign worldwide to
disseminate factual information about Shimadzu and their egregious business practices. We
will endeavor to use the same strategy again for the current year in a sincere effort to
reach all laboratory decision makers worldwide. Meanwhile, search engine indexing of all
our URLs continues in earnest. This should help to insure that prospective Shimadzu
customers will find us before bringing this inferior line of instrumentation into their
labs.
We have communicated on numerous occasions that our primary purpose has always been to
provide valuable consumer-oriented information to our readers. We have never knowingly
published any false information on our website and anything that is published has been
substantiated and/or verified independently (editorial notes and opinions are points of
view.... please don't hate us when we tell it the way it is). In an effort to up the ante,
we have been offering 10,000 Japanese yen since January 1999 to
the first contributor (including the lowlifes at Shimadzu) who provides us with any
incontrovertible evidence by email which contradicts any of the factual information
portrayed on our homepage (opinions exempted). To date, we have had no takers! We're not
surprised because we are committed to publishing the complete truth but it should help
dispel the notion that we make this stuff up ruthlessly. The truth is very powerful
stuff.... just ask the censoring misfits at Shimadzu!
For some reason, the prevaricators at Shimadzu continue to advertise themselves as a 2
billion dollar corporation. For the past 6 years running, that number has been closer to
1.5 billion. While several other analytical instrumentation corporations have witnessed
double-digit growth thru most of the 1990s, Shimadzu has watched their bottom line decline
by single digits most years. Why would you buy product from a company that re-packages the
same old technologies? Do you think Shimadzu is on the cutting-edge? What
awards have they won? We don't know of Shimadzu receiving a Pittcon award during any
of the past four years! Nor do we know of Shimadzu receiving a honorable mention at any
Pittcon meeting ever! So why would you do business with this outfit?
As many already know, we have been soliciting input from our readers telling
us why and which equipment they won't be buying from Shimadzu. To date, we have
received input from more than 300 prospective customers who have stated unequivocally that
they won't be buying certain Shimadzu instrumentation. Some anonymous troll noted
"that our postings are done to discourage sales of their products and services."
Furthermore, he/she claimed that Shimadzu "had actually gained sales due to these
rantings." Unfortunately the Shimadzu financial summaries don't support this feeble
claim. More importantly, so what.... they sold a filter fluorometer or two! Conservative
estimates place the loss of sales to Shimadzu (thanks to the input from 300 prospective
customers) at over $6 million dollars in the US alone. A more complete accounting will
follow sometime during 2000 but Shimadzu has already missed out on the sale of several
HPLCs, GC/MSs, LC-MSs, TOCs, AAs and FTIRs. And the losses will only continue to mount! Dear
Shimadzu: What do you think of our "divide and conquer" theme?
During the coming year, we will unveil a new look to our homepage. We pledge to continue
bringing incredible new stories, periodic updates along with late-breaking news. In fact,
we continue to amass a backlog of new ideas/stories such that we are not starved for
content. We continue to be grateful to our growing network of contributors and sources who
supply us with an influx of tips, ideas and story suggestions.... please keep the presses
rolling! There are investigations that are still active and on-going. Therefore, we will
not divulge the nature of these undertakings so as to compromise sources or jeopardize the
possible outcomes. Our network of custodians will insure that the Shimadzu Consumer Alerts
homepage will not vanish from the internet any time soon. Dear Shimadzu: Stick that in
your pipe and smoke it!
n.b. Remember, quality at Shimadzu means getting passing grades (barely); it doesn't
mean getting it right the first time!
n.b. It's been observed that if you throw enough Shit-madzu up on the wall.... some of it
is bound to stick sooner or later. Meanwhile, the slinging will continue with glee!
n.b. Something to ponder: What do we have to gain by stating untruths and falsehoods....
absolutely nothing! Now what does Shimadzu have to gain by using treachery and deceit?
Answer: YOUR business (which translates into dollars). Who has a bigger motivation to
resort to the use of lies, denials and cover-ups.... us or them??? And we put our money
where our mouth is.... did Shimadzu reciprocate?
BTW: Please note that Shimadzu Corporation has never written us at any time to
question the veracity of the information on our website at:
http://www.bigfoot.com/~shimadzu-sux. It's something that they don't want to admit but our
facts (and opinions) are all in order!
At Shimadzu, it's all about delivering.... lies, denials and disappointment!