Editor's Page
....no one has jurisdiction over the truth!
January 2001
The start of 2001 marks the fourth anniversary of the Shimadzu Consumer Alerts homepage
since its debut four full years ago. It's always an exciting time to look forward but it's
also a great time to reflect on some of our more noteworthy achievements during the past
year. In late December 2000, we unveiled a new look for our homepage. This was
necessitated because the number of accompanying support pages had become voluminous and
unwieldy. If the resulting increase in visitors is any indication, maybe we should refresh
our homepage more often. Website traffic has increased nearly 50% when compared to the
~600 weekly page views recorded previously. And YES, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments
(Columbia, MD, USA) and Shimadzu Corporation (Kyoto, Japan) along with their respective IP
addresses (208.212.50.* and smzk075.shimadzu.co.jp) were among the website visitors
recorded in our server logs.
In reviewing the individual page view statistics generated by website visitors over the past year, some interesting trends were noted. First of all, there was a direct correlation between the number of emails received concerning the timeless memo written by Shimadzu Regional Manager Terry Adams and the number of hits accessing the adams.htm support page. In fact, Mr. Adams' memo was the most visited link at the www.bigfoot.com/~shimadzu-sux domain with nearly triple the traffic of the next closest finisher (the awards.htm support page). Secondly, website visitors seemed genuinely interested in any attempt by Shimadzu to quash our right to free speech. As a group, the censor.htm, coverup.htm and speech.htm support pages were the second most visited links at the www.bigfoot.com/~shimadzu-sux domain behind Mr. Adams' explosive interoffice memo. Other support pages with significant page views alphabetically included Shimadzu GC Blows Up (blowz-up.htm), Mr. Gerry Carder's Hazmat response (carder.htm), filing a Hazmat claim (hazmat.htm), the Shimadzu Consumer Alerts fact sheet (poster.htm), customers who insisted on telling us that they won't be doing business with Shimadzu (tell-us.htm), the foreign language translator (translate.htm), and our amended offer of 20,000 Japanese yen (20yen.htm).
During 2000, we continued to make
significant strides informing laboratory decision makers worldwide about "the
other side of Shimadzu." Our numerous perma-web addresses have been indexed in
many of the popular search engines on the world wide web. In fact, if one performs a
search for "shimadzu" (just pick a search engine), the top 10 returned results
often include prominent pointers directing prospective customers to www.bigfoot.com/~shimadzu-sux or one of
our sister domains. We continue to add new permanent URLs (hidden for now) which will
divert inquiring minds to the real truth about the corporate lowlifes at Shimadzu. And we
will continue to index them as well on a need to know basis. Visit www.yahoo.com and look
for the search term "shimadzu" inclusively.... Dear Shimadzu, it's a 50-50
chance that our homepage will be clicked upon! This is also a great time to remind
Shimadzu to cease and desist in any and all efforts to censor
and/or abridge our right to free speech and free press. Shimadzu needs to understand that
we will remain vigilant and not tolerate any direct or indirect transgressions!
Since 1997, 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 are now offering 20,000 Japanese yen 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). Some Piece
Of $hit (probably a Shimadzu employee) who didn't want our reward money (imagine that....) stated in the sci.chem newsgroup
recently that the "gapping void" descibed in our wwii.htm support page was in
error. This support page was originally constructed in response to an email we received
back on June 23, 1997 and last updated December 31, 2000. It would seem that Shimadzu
subsequently amended their company timeline sometime during 1998 following the publication
of the wwii.htm support page. This change was undoubtedly driven by dissemination of the
facts surrounding Shimadzu and World War II. Sorry, but our facts
were accurate at the time of original publication back on July 1, 1997. Besides, what PO$
(other than a Shimadzu employee who knows where his next meal
hangs) would agrue such a minor point? Where did they get their erroneous
info? Is this the best that Shimadzu can do? Does this mean that Shimadzu cannot find
fault with any of the other facts depicted on our homepage?
For nearly three years, we have been
soliciting input from our visitors telling us why and which
equipment they won't be buying from Shimadzu. To date, we have received input from more
than 375 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 STILL don't support this feeble claim. For the 8th
consecutive year, Shimadzu's corporate net sales and/or income has not surpassed the
figures reported back in 1992. Conservative estimates place the loss
of sales to Shimadzu (thanks to the input from >300 prospective customers as of 31
March 2000) at nearly $14 million US dollars.... can Shimadzu say $20 million???
Another updated complete accounting will follow again sometime during the first half of
2001. Shimadzu continues to miss out on the sale of numerous HPLCs, GC/MSs, LC-MSs, TOCs,
UV-Vis, AAs and FTIRs. And the losses will only continue to mount! Dear Shimadzu: What
do you think of our "divide and conquer" theme.... it's working!!!
During the coming year, we will watch from the sidelines to see if
Shimadzu can snag any awards (or even an honorable mention) at Pittcon '01. The
outdated technologies (including those incendiary devices)
peddled by Shimadzu should help to seal their fate once again even before the voting
begins! Think about it.... what cutting-edge innovations is Shimadzu known for? Can you
even mention one product? We will continue our quest of bringing incredible new stories,
periodic updates along with late-breaking disparaging news about Shimadzu to light. We
thank our website visitors, many of whom who sit on the sidelines as horrified onlookers
to an automobile pile-up.... is Shimadzu naive enough to think that they will buy
these $hitty products? We are grateful to our steadfast network of contributors and
sources who supply us with a barage of tips, ideas and story suggestions such that we are
not starved for content. Finally, we'll thank the sales people working for the competition
who have shared some of the fruits of their labor in the form of sales dollars they took
from Shimadzu due to the presence of this homepage on the world wide web. Dear
Shimadzu: Our network of custodians will insure that the Shimadzu Consumer Alerts homepage
will not vanish from the internet any time soon!
Maybe you missed the....
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. More and more
is sticking.... hence, 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 intentional use of lies, denials and cover-ups.... us or them??? And we put
our money where our mouth is.... did Shimadzu reciprocate? Can they 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!
This page was last 
01/20/01