Starbuck Again

Update II.-- It turns out the old reward was there after all. The barista today found it when I asked about it, and she discovered you have to enter in the account code twice for the old reward, the first to use earned stars, which the barista did Sunday, and again to see if any old reward(s) were still there, which is was, so I used it.

Kudos goes to both the barista Monday who gave me the free drink and coupon, and the barista today who found the old reward. Since I've used the last to the old rewards, it's now just adding to the stars I earn, all 4 with my Doppio con Panna.

I still haven't gotten Spotify to work on the Starbucks app. It's supposed to show what's playing at Starbucks with your location. It worked before, then didn't work and now after the latest release, still doesn't work. Or, as usual, I'm missing something.

Update.--Yesterday (Sunday) I went to the local Starbucks for the 3 newspapers I buy and I used one reward I had left under the old rewards system, keeping the one (125 stars) I have under the new system. But when I checked my Starbucks this morning for my normal coffee, both rewards were gone, the old missing and my stars reset to 34, the amount I had accured above 125.

The barista explained the barista likely coded in using the stars instead of the old reward but the system used both. Since correcting this would incur another round with Starbucks reps, which I've given up hearing the same story, the barita gave me a free drink and a coupon for some stars.

I'll take it so I don't have to deal their reps again in endless e-mails, which always results, eventually, in them giving me stars or credit, but not worth the hassle anymore. It's clear their system still has problems, which eats customers rewards and stars.

Original Post.-- I wrote about my experience with Starbucks and their new rewards system and iPbone app.  They switched from using visits and purchases to count stars for rewards (free drink(s)) to how much the customer spends, which turns out the break even point is $5, just more than the normal 12 oz drink.

But the majority of customers buy a larger drink or a drink and food, which costs them from $6-10, and where they'll earn more stars and rewards sooner. Folks like me who buy just a regular coffee or a $2 espresso drink lose in the deal where it takes 2.5 times more purchases to earn a reward as before.

That's enough for me not to care about rewards with them anymore. I'll still buy my Doppio con Panna (own cup which gives a 10-cent discount) and use the two rewards and have and the rest whenever I get them. My other complaint was their new system with the new app.

To put it mildly, the app sucks for design and user friendliness. and it was plagued with problems from day one. It lost a reward I earned on the day of the rollout, and they never credited me for it, but gave me 50 starts and a $5 credit on my account.

After that the app kept losing Spotify. I only turn location services on when I use the app, which is almost always when I'm at a Starbucks so they can't track me more than what cafes I visit. In addition the dashboard, the open space for messages, receipts, etc. was always blank except for "Caught up."

They released an update recently which fixed some of the issues, but left one confusing one. The stars are supposed to count to 125 and then credit you with a reward. Except they changed it so the stars just keep adding up and you cash in the stars when and after you reach 125 stars.

In additon they changed the rewards from a 30-day expiration period to a 6-month expiration period for the stars, meaning, as I understand their explanation, the stars will reduce when the oldest reaches 6 months, and continues there after.

So it's use them or lose them. Now that I know that I'll work from there. Since I only use the rewards for occasional special drinks, usually mochas, it's not that important to me anymore. I buy my mochas as other cafes in Tacoma or Gig Harbor, or on trips in Seattle, where they're better and often cheaper, some with better customer rewards programs.

And where pray tell are these cafes? Well there are four excellent local ones, three in Tacoma and one in Gig Harbor (this is correction from the previous entry about these because I forgot one). The best is the Diversions Cafe on the University of Puget Sound campus. And it about a buck and a half cheaper.

The others are a tie. The cafe in the Metropolitan Market in Proctor neighborhood is great and they have a card, buy 12 get 1 free. The other is the Spar Cafe next door to the Spar Pub in Old Town. Great everything about it and it's better than the Starbucks across the street.

The last is the Cutters Point cafe in Gig Harbor just down from Fred Meyer Market. There are two other Cutters Point in the immediate area, one in the Uptown Mall south of Safeway, and one in the Main and Vine Market next to the Starbucks I usually visit. These two are good, the former better, and both better than Starbucks.

So that's the story to date. Starbucks is still the cafe for my turnaround on my morning 6-mile walk but that's about the extent of my business with them anymore, except to use my rewards when I earn them. I'll buy my other coffee drinks at the cafes above.

Harriet Tubman

Letter from Frederick Douglas to Harriet Tubman, the woman whose portrait will replace Jackson on the $20 bill in the near future.

Dear Harriet: I am glad to know that the story of your eventful life has been written by a kind lady, and that the same is soon to be published. You ask for what you do not need when you call upon me for a word of commendation. I need such word from you for more than you can need them from me, especially where your superior labors and devotion to the cause of the lately enslaved of our land are known as I know them. The difference between us is very marked. Most of that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You on the other hand have labored in a private way I have wrought in my day - you in the night. I have had the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bond-men and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt God bless you” has been your only reward. The midnight sky and silent stars have been witness of your devotion to freedom and your heroism. Excepting John Brown - of scared memory - I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have. Much that you have done would seem improbably to those who do not know you as I know you. It is to me a great pleasure and a great privilege to bear testimony to your character and your works, and to say those those to whom you may come, that I regard you in every way truthful and trustworthy.

Your friend,
Frederick Douglass

Reprinted from Wall Street Journal from Sarah Hopkins Bradford’s, “Scenes in the life of Harriet Tubman”, 1869.

Conundrum

The conundrum democrats face in this year’s primary election is between two candidates who are polar opposites politically as you can get and still call them democrats, although Bernie is an independent. Bernie is the archetype socialist. Hillary is the most conversative democrat candidate in decades.

Hillary Clinton has a record of being a conservative on diplomatic and international issues and a strong supporter on the use of the military, more than any democrat since Johnson. She also has strong, close ties to Wall Street, the major banks, financial and investment corporations. Both of those scare me she’s just more of the same, a moderate republican wrapped in democrat cloth. 

Bernie is the opposite about corporationis, and while I agree with his views, it’s clear with the political clout corporations, especially energy, banks, finanancial, and investment corporations, have in Congress, it’s doubtful he could get anything done with more than a few similarly minded democrats.I th

What scares me about Bernie is his total lack of international and diplomatic experience. I like he’s even-handed with Israel, since it takes two sides to wage a prolonged war and both are guilty of extremism, some say Israel more so because their military is far more powerful, supported by the US, and has inflected far worse damage and casaulties.

So, to me, that’s the conundrum. I like Bernie, but I don’t see he’d make a good president, although he could easily suprise people, and I suspect if elected he would be more a centrist to build his administration and not anger too many democrats in Congress.

Hillary clearly is the more experienced of all the candidates in both parties, but her views bother me that’s she closer to GW Bush than Obama. Bernie would be far more moderate with the use of the miltary, but like Obama, he would have to become a centrist there too. Being a socialist doesn’t work in American politics.

So that's the situation. I think both would do well on common issues, such as jobs, infrastructure, the environment,  education, Social Security, Medicare/medicaid, etc, and even issues they may be slightly different, such as healthcare, etc. On those issues both would be good presidents, the old adage, "Six of one, half a dozen of the other."

And that's the conundrum, because you have to vote for one and not the other. But then I'm a fan of underdogs.

Turkey Salad

I live on a very restricted diet, mostly because after a lifetime of antibiotics which started at age 3 for Rheutmatic Fever, my digestive system is effectively shot, meaning it's overly sensitive to food, various abnormal bacteria, viruses, flu/colds, OTC and prescription drugs, etc.

It also adversely reacts to prebiotics, probiotics, digestive enzymes and naturapathic supplements. Over the years I've tried 4 diferent probiotics, from single or two types to complete types. I've tried two types of digestive enzymes. Both the probiotics and enzymes make things worse.

It's the mythy gastroenterologist and may digestives specialist make, "Just take probiotics, they replace all the bad bacteria.", which is not true. None of them will replace any bad bacteria you have in your digestive tract and only add more bacteria the system doesn't need or want.

The second myth is prebiotics. The same folks argue it feeds the good bacteria, which is true, but it also feeds the bad bacteria, which, if you notice their statements, they don't mention. You can actually excerbatte a digestive problem with prebiotics, especially if it can't tolerate starch and fiber.

Backto the story. Over the last 5 years, with suggestions from a gastroenterologist, and research published in 2012 about FODMAPS, we started with a very basic diet by eliminating major foods, starting with wheat and grains. The list expanded as I tried foods and added them to the no-eat list.

When all was said and done, I was down to a list you can write on a 4x6 postit note with room for doodles. But it has all the major food groups, covers the range to provide a more or less balanced diet, minus things like starch, fiber, fat, etc.

The list has only two meats, turkey and ham, not pork or bacon, and only organic meat without additional chemicals, especially things like nitrates and nitrites, meaning not the major brands. It used to include some fish and seafood, but were removed after several adverse reactions.

About once a week I have a food experiment meal where I prepare and cook something I haven't tried or something I have tried but had adverse reactions. I give foods three strikes. The first strike puts a waiting period between samples. The second puts it on a longer period. And the third scratches it from the list.

That said, the local Metropolitan Market (Proctor District in Tacoma) sells a locally raised turkeys. I can't recommend local, organic raised poultry enough over all the national brands. If you've tried them you know national brand turkeys are bland, almost tasteless, but local turkeys have a very distinct, tasty flavor, great for anything turkey.

It's a big difference you'll notice and won't buy national brands again. I go through a half breast in about a weke or so depending on the size, but usually stay with the medium ones to ensure it won't spoil before it's fully eaten.

I've also learned how to remove the entire breast in one piece in about five minutes. It's not hard, and only takes one very sharp knife and your fingers, so you have to make sure you wash your hands before starting this job.

The key is to do remove the breast from the bone while it is still slight warm and the meat is a little pliable, which allows it to be removed from the bone with just the ends of your fingers slowly peeling it from the bone and the knife to cut some parts loose, usually around the ends.

It's cool when you see the whole breast in one piece which makes it easy to cut or slice for any need. Ok, the salad. Sometimes I cut about half the breast into small chunks. I add a little salt to taste (you can always add more later), sliced almonds, coconut and mayonaise.

Mix it all together using only enough mayonaise to hold it together. Let it chill for a couple of hours and it's one very tasty salad for anything. You can vary the ingredients, add spices if you want (I can only have salt, not even pepper) or chopped pecans or walnuts if you prefer them.

It's good for about a week if it lasts that long. It's good in wraps, with fresh vegetables, whatever you like. I like to wrap it in slices of sandwich ham or in a corn tortilla. It makes a balanced, nutritious meal for me, using the few foods I can eat.

Starbucks

Update III.--After filling out a survey about my experience with Starbuck reps., I still didn't get my lost earned reward restored, but along with the 50 stars I got a $5 credit to my account on the app. I was honest in my answers to let them know I'll still be a customer for my normal $2 drink and spend my earned reward on more expensive drinks, but I won't be buying the more expensive drinks when there are several cafes where I live that make better ones.

If you're in Tacoma or Gig Harbor, those cafes are the Divesions Cafe on the University of Puget Sound campus, loud being students, but the best coffee drinks in Tacoma, and you don't even have to be a student, although the drinks cost a little more. After that the cafe in the Metropolitan Market in the Proctor District is a very close second, and they have a rewards card (buy 12 get one free). Third is the Cutter's Point cafe in Gig Harbor near Fred Meyer market, equally a very close second.

It's hard to decide which of the three is the best but the Diversions cafe is just slightly better tasting for the coffee they use. All of the cafes (above) use a better coffee than Starbucks, which probably explains why they're better than Starbucks, at least for mochas, the only flavored drink I buy except a rare chance to taste something different.

Update II.-- Starbucks responded to my two e-mails with a 50 star gift, which under the new rewards progam is 40% of a reward of the old program. It's all they'll do. They won't restore the missing reward I earned on the day of the release of their new app.

Since it takes me 31 visits and just over $62, compared to 12 visits and $25 under the old program, to earn a rewards problem I doubt I use Starbucks more than the usual coffee drink, a Doppio con Panna, and the rewards for other drinks. There are cafes locally and in the area which make better flavored coffee drinks and have better rewards programs. None, so far that I've tasted, make a better Doppio con Panna.

I understand the reason for the new rewards program, it favors people who spend money than those who just visit for a regular coffee or espresso drink, especially with the break even point at $5, which is about the price of a venti or larger drink, or a tall with food item.

It's their company and their policy, and I'll adapt, just not spending as much there as elsewhere now. As I told them, customers always have the right to exercise their choice with the feet and their money.

Update.-- They restored the two lost rewards but not one reward I eraned on the day the app was released. I've sent two e-mails to them and all I get in response is  words about patience and they're working on ("tweaking") the app to improve it and get all the users' information available.

Orignal Post.-- I don’t know how many here are Starbucks customers, let alone regular ones like me where the Starbucks is at the turn-around place on my morning walks (3-4 miles there and 3-4 miles home), so a doppio con panna is the everyday drink. 

As some may know Starbucks introduced their new rewards program Tuesday with the new mobile app. The new rewards changes from where you earn 1 star per visit or purcha and 12 stars earns a free drink to where you earn 2 stars for every $1 spent and 125 stars earns a free drink.

For me it went from a free drink for $25 spent to a free drink for $62+ spent. Yeah. The report is that about $5 is the break even point for the old and new programs, meaning the same purchases earns a free reward. It also means a free drink, which used to take 12 purchases, now takes 32 purchases of $2, the price of just coffee or espresso drinks.

I can live with that, but the app they introduced has had problems from the beginning. It lost the earned rewards for many users, like me, along with all the saved messages. And the desktop display doesn’t work. The company said they plan to compensate customers as they work on fixing the problems which could take a week or so.

Yeah, really, about a week to fix it, during which time some will lose some of their free drinks to the time limit. The only things that works is that it still takes the money people put in the app, which is their real focus, generating revenue, not customer satisfaction.

Mac Pro HD

I have a mid-2010 Mac Pro (bought late 2010). I bought it with four 1-TB Hard Drives (HD's) but it shipped with only 3 (revised purchase order too), so I bought the fourth from the Apple store then. The HD's have been running near continuously since December 2010, over 5 years.

This last week doing routine tests of the hard drives one of them, the extra one I bought, wouldn't optimize and a surface scan test crashed the application. An application which is supposed to test for, find and report bad blocks crashes when it finds one.

Really, the company said the error message showed it's a rare failure of a hard drive, one they didn't design their application to find, so when it does find one, it crashes. The company got an e-mail full of WTF's, and they said it was on their to do list for the software.

Anyway, that's the first HD I've had fail. I still have two 500 GB HD's from the 2006 G5 PPC working and a 2008 1-TB HD from a Time Machine (removed) working, all in external boxes connected to the Mac Pro for overnight backups and work space. I also have a 2012 2-TB LaCie HD still working.

So the work progressed on the old and new HD. The old one has two recent complete backups on separate HD's, the LaCie and the new Time Machine. The HD was erased and removed, and the new one installed and formatted, and then the content restored.

After that it was the test of applications, mainly iTunes since the HD was dedicated to music files, mostly iTunes but other music applications. And then back to work as usual. I bought two HD's so I have an extra one when one of the other 3 internal HD's fail.

I had thought to replace the logical HD (OS-X) with a 1-TB SSD but at $350 that's not cost effective since the real issue now is replacing the Mac Pro with a new Mac Pro in the next few years, something I don't look forward for the price, because with the price of the configured Pro, I'd have to add an 4-HD external box for the current internal HD's.

I've looked at Mac Mini's, and for much of my work, a Mini would suffice, but for some of the work with applications it wouldn't work as well, and with the number of peripheral equipment (three printers and two scanners), there just isn't enough ports on the Mini.

The decision to replace the Mac Pro will be when Apple releases a version of OS-X which is only backward compatible to later model Pro's, 2012 or later. This will freeze this Mac Pro for OS-X and applications.

This happened with OS-X 10.8 which was not compatible with PPC's or 2006-08 Intel Pro's. So I suspect OS-X 10.12 maybe and 13 definitely, will be the one which excludes this Mac Pro and forces the decision to upgrade or keep it. I delayed the upgrade of the PPC to this Mac for about a year.

That's the story to date. The first HD to fail. At least it wasn't the logical HD with OS-X on it. I have a clone  HD to boot the Mac if that happens. Time will tell.

Food

Food is my enemy. The enemy of my digestive system. I've been seeing gastroenterologists for over six years now after nearly two years of problems. I won't get into what I think of gastroenterologists, except it's fair to say some are good and some aren't, but all of them can't solve many problems with anyone's digestive system.

I've been through nearly every test available to gastroenterologists to diagnose physical and some bacterial problems, all of which found a lot of related problems, but nothing about what's  been causing the problems, which has been a series of bacterial issues.

I use the word infection or overgrowth because it fits the symptoms, but hasn't past any of the tests for known infections and overgrowths, but I've learned those tests only focus on known problems, to which everything else is call Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS.

Which to me translates to them saying, "It Bets the Shit" out of me. And for all the conversations I've had, they, or some of them, recognize the symptoms are consistent with a problemd. The rest just dismiss them and me and prescribe probiotics, like it's the wonder drug on the digestive system.

[Note.-- Have you noticed the doctors and companies selling probiotics, never tell you the side or adverse effects of probiotics? They're not the cure-all for digestive problems, and too often exacerbate problems, as with me after trying 4 different ones.]

Even when they've had sample of the bacteria which clearly is the problem, the best they can do to identify it from the sample is call it "aggregate bacteria", meaning it's one of the many in your digestive tract which likely isn't normally there and they don't exactly know what type.

Anyway, long story, and not wanting to bore you, so I'll bore you with an example. As part of living with the problem I live on a restricted diet. a list of foods you can write on a 4x6 postit note with room for doodles. And every week or so I try a food experiment, some food off the list, and judge the reaction.

This last week's food experiment was small, a snack-size box of raisins. Yes, raisins. And as most, probably over 90% of them, go I was sick for 3 days. One gastroenterologist pretty much said since I took penicillin from age 3 to age 18, the age your body starts (at 2-3) and establishes the "normal" bacteria in your digestive tract, that mine was essentially shot.

Shot in terms it never fully established what is normal and from for the rest of my life since then have had problems with food, and worsened starting about 20 years ago, more so since 2008 after a long bout of the flu.

The gastroenterologist worked with me to find a way to have a diet I can eat and my body won't reject or have advere reactions, hence the postit note list. It's a balanced diet, and one I like, but also changes now and then, usually after the flu or simillar illness.

The hardest thing for me is socializing since food is almost always the center of the group, at some pub, restaurant, event or someone's home. Food is always there and pushed at people. The hardest thing is telling folks I can't eat anything there (that's a near 100% certainty now), and why I only drink coffee and on rare occasions, one beer.

My point? Nothing really, except to say, as others say, IBS is real and very personal to the person with it. It's nothing to make fun of or tell them it's not real. It is for them, they live with it. Respect it and what they say.

Domain Name Scam

I've owned my domain name since 2000 with the same Website host and the same domain nane host. Every now and then I get an e-mail from some domain name host company demanding I pay them to keep my domain name and information current and accurate, and threatening action if I don't.

This is in part because the information on the registration appears dated, but in truth, nothing has changed in the last 5 years, so following the rules, I review it once a year to ensure it's complete, accurate and true, which means nothing to update.

The latest round of threatening e-mails is from a company called accountsupport-inc.com, or accountsupport.com, which is one of the many names used by Endurance International Group, Inc, see the Boston BBB for more information and the list of subsidaries they use to send these e-mails to domain name owners.

It's a scam. Pure and simple. Clicking on the link sets up and account for you with their company they charge you for doing nothing for you or your domain name. I usually just delete these e-mails. Today I almost replied with a cease and desist e-mail, but changed my mind and deleted it.

This is because once you respond they know you read their e-mail enough to act. That's what they want, so that they can engage you to believe they can act against your domain name and they can protect it with a subscription to their service. They can't do the former and won't do the latter.

That's why it's a scam. Make sure your domain name information is correct and only do business with the Website host and domain name host about your domain name. Anyone else is bogus and a scam if they want your money.

Safari Browser Cache

I've always used Safari as my main browser because it was, and to what I know so far still is, the most W3C compliant and least robust browser, including Google Chrome (long story there where I've removed it and Google's Software Update software), Firefox, Chromium, Omniweb, Sea Monkey, etc.

Recently, after removing Google's instrusive software, I removed all of the other browsers except Ominweb which can mimic the others. I've always designed my Web pages for Safari, but tested them with Chrome and Firefox. I've always ignored Microsoft's Internet Explorer since it was the least compliant, most robust, and often used noncompliant, proprietary features.

What I want to say now is something I've done over the years because it helps when testing Web pages, and while I only use it for Safari, it should be used on the other browser if possible. That's turn off the browser's cache.

The cache is used to store Web pages so when you go back it simply reloads the page in cache than retrieves the page again. This is good for static pages, but bad for dynamic pages, or when you want to reload the page, and then have to force the reload to write a new version to cache.

In Safari you don't normally see this setting because it's defaults to storing cache. You have to set it each time you open Safari but it's a simple click before you load any Web page, but there is one thing you must do first.

You have to enable viewing the "Develop" dropdown menu and Safari's menu bar. This is a permanent setting so it will always appear when you open Safari. After that, just open the dropdown menu and click "Disable Cache". It will not store any cache for the time you have Safari open.

The downside is that you have to do this everytime you open Safari, but I do it out of habit. This is important if you don't clear the cache routinely if not before you close Safari. There is a command you can use in Terminal mode to remove the cache files anytime whether Safari is open or not.

Why is this important? It's not if it doesn't bother you or you don't worry about the cache files. They'll just keep piling up on the cache folder. The advantage is that no application can access them or use them because they aren't created in the first place.

Anyway, just a thought. It's the user's choice, but it simplifies my work and I'll always get a fresh version of any Web page.

Packages

My paternal grandparents were English. My grandfather came over from England around 1908 to settle in Valley Falls, Kansas, a small town about two hours drive northwest of Kansas City. My grandmother came two years later when her soon-to-be-husband built her a home and opened the general store in town until he died.

During the summers of the late 1950′s my parents would send me to spend the summer with them. He went every day but Sunday to run the store and she tended to the house and garden. I was free to go anywhere I wanted so long as I got home in time for dinner. In a small town a 7-9 year old kid can’t get lost. There are too many neighbors to see you’re ok.

My grandmother was thrifty to say the least. She kept every package anything came in after they were done with it (dairy products were in glass jars so easy to recycle). She would throw away any paper inside boxes, etc. and then put the boxes on the shelves in the basement, which literally had everything they bought in packages since they moved into the house.

In the basement was the history of many packages, mostly food, but anything else than came in a box. He died in the early 1960′s when we lived in Europe. She lived for another 15 years. When they passed away, the kids, my aunt, uncle and father, wholesaled everything in the house that wasn’t removed by them for themselves. Her will was even read to know what she wanted.

I never knew what became of the collection in the basement, even my father didn’t know since it was one of the many things left for the wholesaler. I’ve always regretted not having a say in the dispensation of their belongs but their 3 kids, who didn’t like each other very much, were greedy for themselves with their parents legacy.

But the memory of the summers is always there. Not many, but always the basement full of commercial package history.

Journals

When I went through graduate school all the journals were in the library, huge rooms of rows and rows of bound volumes of journals going back decades or more, and every article in those journals were free to you to read, and to copy for the price of a copy machine, effectively free to duplicate as many copies as you wanted, which by law was legal for personal and research use. And you could share those articles if you wanted. I have a few file cabinets and boxes full of copies of journal articles for papers and my thesis.

And I can still do that at any public or university library, which I do for my personal research into the history of Mount Rainier National Park. But now some university libraries are only purchasing digital subscriptions of the journals, and those are not open to the public, or are available for a annual access fee, which works for all digital holdings, including free printing.

When I’ve found artlcles not in these libraries but available through the journal, they almost always charge a fee, either purchasing an annual subscription or for copies of articles. And their fees aren’t cheap. I often tried to find the article through Google search, sometimes finding someone posted it on-line as part of a project or research, but a few have escaped me because of that fee, which often starts at $35 per article or $100 per annual subscription. 

Then I read an article about a woman in Kazakhstan who operates a Website, Sci-Hub, which has over 50 million journal articles free, or will retrieve it if it’s not in the database. The journal publishers have court orders against her and her Website, but they don’t apply where she lives, thankfully, and the database is growing through cooperation among students, researches and academics.

I haven’t tried it yet, but will when I have the need. This is the perfect answer to the research and academic publishers to bring them into the real world and be fair to people who need or want the journals or articles. If the world of music can change, then these publishers can or face the same fate, being taught a lesson on how to treat customers.