Version 3 — in force from 2 September 2026, updated 17 September 2026. These terms consolidate and supersede our five previous product terms (DGC, Membership, Treatment Upgrade, Holder Credit, and Booking Account). Those documents stay readable so you can always see what you agreed to at the time, but from this date these terms are the ones that govern your account. Our Privacy Policy is separate and is incorporated by reference.
These terms are an agreement between you and Elite Massage Clinic, doing business as Vitaliteit Massage, 9257 South Redwood Road, Suite 6-A, West Jordan, UT. "We" and "us" mean Elite Massage Clinic; "you" means the person holding the Booking Account.
You need an account to book. It holds your appointments, balances, agreements, and notifications.
Age. You must be 18 or older to receive a massage. We do not treat minors.
Sign-up. We collect your name, email, and phone, plus health information through our intake forms (Section 11). Your email is verified by one-time code before your first booking. See our Privacy Policy.
Signing in. There are four ways in, and your account may have any or all of them: the one-time code we email you, a password if you choose to set one, a browser you have asked us to trust for 30 days, and the one-tap link we include in appointment reminders and in our "something needs you" notices. That link works once, and expires when the appointment it is about ends, or after four days, whichever comes first; a notice that is not about a particular appointment takes the four days. It is deliberately weaker than signing in — it cannot move credits to another person, change your password or email address, or close your account. But anyone who can read your email can use it to reach your account, so treat those emails as you would a password. To stop these links being sent, switch off account emails altogether using the master switch in your notification settings (Section 13) — turning off only the reminder category still leaves the link in the "something needs you" notice. Changing your password or email revokes any that are outstanding.
Closing. You may ask us to close your account at any time, and closing is how you take a refund of your balances (Section 9). Contact us and we will work out the figure, pay it out, and confirm it on your account — closure is handled by hand rather than by a button, so that the amount is agreed before anything is zeroed. Closing deactivates your account but does not erase your records — we must retain treatment records for seven years.
Re-opening. You may re-open at any time. Your Client ID and history carry forward, including anything that depends on prior membership or treatment history.
We may close an account for the reasons in Section 12.
One DGC is worth 30 minutes of session time: 60 minutes = 2 DGCs, 90 = 3, 120 = 4. "30 minutes" means 30 minutes of hands-on body work — we schedule buffer time either side so consultation and dressing don't come out of the time you paid for.
Pricing. DGCs are sold singly and in packs of 3, 6, and 10+1 (ten certificates plus one free — eleven in all). Members buy DGCs at 21% off, singles included. Current prices are at vitaliteitinfo.com.
Diamond Bundle. A 10+1 DGC pack plus a 5-credit Treatment Upgrade pack at one price. Members only.
Extending a session. Sessions run 60, 90 or 120 minutes. You can extend past what your booking already covers at 1 DGC per additional 30 minutes — on a member session, a certificate session or a cash session, including a first session booked at the same moment you join as a member. There is no separate extension fee. Extending draws on your own DGC balance, so you need to be signed in to do it. A waitlist or holder-offer claim can be extended too, up to 120 minutes, but only when the time straight after it is free.
Limits. Hold up to 36. Used oldest first. DGCs do not expire and remain until used, gifted, or — where a DGC is the payment for the session itself — forfeited under Section 7, or used to pay a late-booking fee under Section 5. DGCs spent on extra session time are never forfeited. They have no cash value and are redeemable only for services, except on closure under Section 9.
$32.99 per year, including 21% off all DGC purchases, access to member-only products (Diamond Bundle, Treatment Upgrade packs, Holder Credit packs), a higher Gratuity Rewards rate (Section 6), and member session pricing.
Member sessions. 60 minutes for a $14.99 Cover Charge plus $40 in post-session dues paid directly to your therapist.
The $40 dues are your therapist's session fee, not a gratuity. Gratuity is separate and customary at about $25 per hour.
Two ways to pay. Book a member session (Cover Charge + dues), or a DGC session paid with DGCs, which carries no Cover Charge and no dues. Banked Cover Charges are used automatically for a member session; to pay with DGCs instead, select that at booking.
Longer member sessions. Extend with DGCs at 1 per additional 30 minutes. The $40 dues stay the same — they cover the first hour, and the DGC covers your therapist for the rest.
When it starts. Your membership year begins the day you pay for it, whether you buy it on its own or join while booking a session, and you get full member benefits from that moment. It runs for one year from that day.
Who it covers. Two people: you and one companion you name, who need not live with you. Your companion gets member pricing on DGC purchases they make for themselves — gifts they buy are charged at the standard price — and may book member sessions; member-only products must be bought by the primary member. You may change your companion once every 45 days, and you may name up to three different companions in a year. Gratuity Rewards accrue to the primary member's account, including on your companion's purchases — your companion builds no balance of their own and starts from zero if they later open their own membership.
New-member welcome. New members choose one Holder Credit or one Gratuity Credit at sign-up. You are a new member if you have not held a Vitaliteit membership in the previous seven years.
Banking and limits. Membership runs in consecutive one-year terms. The year in progress is your active year; additional years are banked and begin automatically as each term ends. Hold up to three membership years — your active year plus two banked. Cover Charges may also be bought ahead and are used automatically as you book; hold up to 15.
Renewal and lapse. Membership does not renew automatically; it ends when your last year expires. Member pricing and your rewards rate apply only while it is active. Banked Cover Charges are not lost — they stay on your account, do not expire, and are usable again as soon as you renew. If you decide not to renew, close your account and they are refunded under Section 9.
A Treatment Upgrade adds a therapy to your session: Hot Stone · Stretching · Cupping · Deep Tissue · Essential Oil Raindrop · Foot Scrub with Hot Towels · Hot Towel Serenity.
One credit covers one upgrade on one session, and you may apply more than one per session. Upgrades don't change session length. Length is set by the session you book and pay for; time beyond that is bought with DGCs (Section 2).
Groupon sessions include the Deep Tissue upgrade at no charge. Choose it when you book, or ask us to add it, and it goes on your appointment like any other upgrade, so your therapist sees it and your intake reflects it — but no credit is reserved and nothing is owed for it. This applies to the Deep Tissue upgrade only, on sessions booked as Groupon; every other upgrade, Cupping included, is charged normally on every session type. If your booking is changed to a different payment type before your session, Deep Tissue becomes a normal paid upgrade on it: charged to a Treatment Upgrade credit if you hold one, and otherwise collected at your appointment.
Singles are available to everyone; packs are members only. Hold up to 15. Upgrades do not expire, have no cash value, and are redeemable only for services except on closure under Section 9.
Booking within 72 hours of a session's start requires a $23 late-booking reservation fee, which applies equally to members and non-members; a complimentary session we arrange for you carries no fee. Moving an existing appointment into the 72-hour window counts as a late booking. Online, it can only be moved onto an open waitlist slot that fits your appointment; we hold that slot for you while you complete the move. If no slot is open, it cannot be moved online inside 72 hours. On a cash or card session the fee is charged in addition to the session deposit (Section 7).
A Holder Credit is the pre-paid form of that fee — one credit covers one fee. Credits do not expire; hold up to 7. Packs are members only; the fee itself is the same for everyone. You may also pay the fee with 1 DGC you already hold. A DGC costs more than the fee (Section 2), so we ask you to confirm that choice before you book.
The fee is used up when you book. The $23 fee, or the Holder Credit or DGC used in its place, is consumed the moment the booking is made and is not returned or restored if you later cancel, whatever notice you give, or if you miss the session. If your appointment is moved — by you or by us — the fee moves with it, and moving an appointment already inside the 72-hour window does not trigger a second fee. Two exceptions: if we cancel your appointment, or you tell us you are unwell (Section 11) and your appointment is cancelled rather than moved, the fee comes back to your account — a Holder Credit or DGC you used comes back as itself, and a fee you paid with money comes back as a Holder Credit.
One Gratuity Credit is worth $25 toward the gratuity for one hour of session time.
A Gratuity Credit covers gratuity only. It does not reduce your $40 post-session dues.
Credit value. We will never reduce a Gratuity Credit below $25. If we increase it we will give at least 30 days' notice, and credits are redeemed at the value in effect when you use them.
Earning. Purchases earn Gratuity Rewards as a dollar balance. Non-members earn 1%. Members earn by the membership years on their account:
| Years on account | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rate | 2% | 4% | 6% |
Your rate is set by your total membership years — active plus banked — so it falls as banked years are used. Every $25 of rewards becomes 1 Gratuity Credit automatically; anything under $25 carries forward.
Earns: DGC purchases, Treatment Upgrades, Holder Credits, membership fees, Cover Charges, and late-booking fees you pay by card. Does not earn: post-session dues paid directly to your therapist — you earn on what you pay the business, not your therapist — travel charges, session deposits, a late-booking fee you cover with a Holder Credit or a DGC rather than money, purchases bought as a gift for someone else (Section 10), and redeeming a credit you already hold.
Using credits. One credit per hour of session time, on any session type, at your discretion: a 60-minute session takes one, a 90-minute session two, or one plus the remainder from you. Any gratuity above the credits applied is yours to cover. When you redeem a credit, your therapist receives its full value from us — redeeming never reduces what your therapist earns.
Expiry. Your rewards dollar balance never expires. A Gratuity Credit expires 180 days after it is created, which is the moment your balance reaches $25 and converts. Expired credits are not restored and the rewards behind them are not returned.
Three exceptions, all in your favour. The Gratuity Credit you may choose as your new-member welcome (Section 3) never expires. And if we have manually adjusted your Gratuity Credit balance for any reason, the 180-day clock stops for your account and your credits stay until you use them. Finally, any Gratuity Credit created before these terms took force on 2 September 2026 never expires: the 180-day clock applies only to credits created from that date onward.
Not money. Gratuity Rewards and Gratuity Credits are a promotional loyalty benefit. They are not money, have no cash value, cannot be withdrawn or transferred, and are not paid out when an account is closed.
Refunds. If a purchase is refunded, the rewards it earned and any Gratuity Credit they produced are reversed. If a reversed credit was already redeemed, its value is deducted from your refund.
Book at vitaliteitinfo.com, or by text or voicemail to (801) 448-6850.
Ways to pay for a session. You can pay in cash or by card at the rate for the length you book, use a third-party certificate, pay with DGCs, or book a member session (Section 3). A cash or card session you book, claim or accept online is booked with a deposit paid online — $80 for the 60-minute rate, $110 for 90 and $140 for 120 — and the rest of the rate is paid after your session. Current session rates are at vitaliteitinfo.com. What you pay covers that length of session; time beyond it is bought with DGCs under Section 2. A late-booking fee (Section 5) is separate from a deposit and charged on top of it.
Cancelling or rescheduling is free with 72 or more hours of notice, except for any late-booking fee already applied, however it was paid (Section 5). Moving a booking into the 72-hour window is a late booking: online it can be done only onto an open waitlist slot, and it triggers that fee (Section 5).
Your deposit. A deposit moves with your booking when it is rescheduled. It is returned to the way you paid — by hand, usually within a few business days — if you cancel with 72 or more hours of notice, if we cancel, or if you are unwell (Section 11). It is kept if you cancel inside 72 hours, or if you miss the session and we confirm a no-show; if a no-show was recorded in error, the deposit goes back on your booking. A deposit is not a balance and cannot be moved to a different booking except by rescheduling.
Rescheduling a longer session inside 72 hours. The forfeit costs you one unit, and that unit was paying for part of your session — so if you have no spare DGCs to cover the gap, the new booking may be shorter than the old one, or may need a top-up before you can check in. We will tell you which before you confirm the change. Rescheduling with 72 or more hours of notice never does this.
Inside 72 hours, one unit is forfeited as compensation to your therapist for the held slot — one DGC for a DGC session, one Cover Charge for a member session. Apart from any late-booking fee already applied (Section 5) and a cash or card session's deposit (see Your deposit above), that is the only thing you lose. DGCs you spent on extra session time are never forfeited: they are returned to your account in full, on every session type, including a longer member session. Reserved Treatment Upgrades are always returned to you. A session with nothing reserved — a complimentary booking, or a 60-minute cash or certificate booking — forfeits nothing beyond any late-booking fee already applied and, on a cash or card session, its deposit under the rule above.
Promotional and voucher bookings. A third-party voucher — a Groupon certificate, for example — is governed by that issuer's terms: what it is worth, when it expires, and whether it is refundable. Anything you add to that booking from your own Vitaliteit account — extra time bought with DGCs, or Treatment Upgrades — is governed by these terms, and is returned to you in full if the booking is cancelled.
Check in on arrival at vitaliteitinfo.com/checkin using your email or Client ID. Required at every session.
No-shows. If you have not checked in within an hour of your start time we may record the appointment as a no-show. A no-show is never automatic — we review it first, and one unit is forfeited only once we confirm it. Arriving late does not extend your session. If you did attend and it was recorded in error, contact us — it can be reversed and the unit returned.
If we cancel. No unit is forfeited, any deposit is returned to the way you paid, any late-booking fee comes back to your account under Section 5 (a Holder Credit or DGC as itself, a fee paid with money as a Holder Credit), any travel charge is not payable, and we will offer you the next available time.
Booking by text. Repeated no-shows or late cancellations may result in booking by text only and payment in full at booking. We will tell you if this applies and what is needed to restore online booking.
Travel. In-home and office visits are available by arrangement. A travel charge of approximately $30 applies depending on distance from West Jordan, is confirmed before the appointment, and is in addition to the price of the session itself.
Pricing. Prices increase 1.5% each year, next effective April 2027, applying to new purchases only — balances already in your account are honored at full value.
Changes. We may update these terms and the current version governs your account, but no change will add an expiry to, or shorten the life of, balances already in your account. Material changes are surfaced at your next booking and we will ask you to accept them before you continue. If you would rather not, you may close your account and take a refund under Section 9.
Refunds are made when you close your account. We don't refund individual purchases; closing settles everything you hold at once. The one exception is a session deposit, which is returned to the way you paid, or kept, when its booking is cancelled, under Section 7 — a deposit is never part of your balance. We absorb payment processing fees.
Refund = the credits you still have × what you paid for each one
That is the whole rule. We give back the credits you have not used, at the price you actually paid for them — not at today's price. Our prices rise 1.5% a year (Section 8); your refund does not move with them, in either direction.
What you paid for each one is worked out purchase by purchase. Every purchase records a per-unit price at the time you bought it — what you actually paid for that pack, divided by the credits it granted. If you bought two packs at different prices, the credits from each are refunded at their own rate, and we count the older pack as used first. For purchases made before we began recording that figure, we use the published per-unit price of the pack the purchase was labelled as.
Credits you still have means what is left on your account. Sessions you have taken, credits that have expired, and credits you transferred to someone else are all gone — once a credit leaves your account it is not refundable to you or to the person who received it.
Credits you did not pay for yourself — ones you claimed from a gift, or that someone transferred to you — are not refundable either. You did not pay for them, so there is nothing to give back.
We work each kind of credit out separately, and no kind can come out below zero.
Example: as a member you bought the 10+1 DGC pack for $276.50, which is $25.14 a DGC. You have used 4, so you still hold 7. Your refund is 7 × $25.14 = $175.98. It is the same figure whether you close tomorrow or in five years, and the same whether or not your membership is still active.
Refundable: DGCs, Treatment Upgrades, Holder Credits, banked Cover Charges, banked membership years.
Not refundable:
Gifts. An unclaimed gift is refundable to the person who bought it (Section 10).
Death or incapacity. An executor or authorised representative may, on written request with documentation, transfer the unredeemed balance to a named person or receive a refund of it.
If we close the clinic. If Vitaliteit Massage stops trading for any reason — closure, relocation out of the area, or the therapist being unable to work for an extended period — every client is refunded the balance on their account. We will contact you at the email address on your account and work through the list.
Please expect this to take time. Refunds are worked out and paid by hand, one account at a time, and a clinic winding down is doing so for a reason that will not make that faster. You will not be paid immediately, and we would rather tell you that now than have you expect otherwise. What we commit to is that your balance is yours, that we will keep you informed while we work through it, and that no balance is written off because the clinic closed.
Gifts. Almost anything we sell may be bought as a gift — DGCs and DGC packs, Treatment Upgrades, Cover Charges, and a Vitaliteit Membership — and no membership is required on either side. Members may also gift member-only products; the recipient needs no membership to use them. Gifts are credited once the recipient enters the one-time claim code and completes a brief profile. If unclaimed after 30 days the purchaser is notified and may take a refund (within 60 days of purchase) or move the purchase to their own account.
Gifting a membership does more than move a credit. When the recipient claims it their membership becomes active from that date and they receive the new-member welcome benefit under Section 3, exactly as though they had joined themselves. Member pricing, the higher Gratuity Rewards rate and the member-only products all follow from that.
Members keep their discount on gifts; companions do not. A member pays the member rate whether the purchase is for themselves or a gift. A companion buying under someone else's membership gets member pricing only on purchases they make for themselves — gifts they buy are charged at the standard price (Section 3).
Transfers. DGCs, Cover Charges, Treatment Upgrades, Holder Credits, and membership years may be transferred to another Vitaliteit client. Transferred credits carry their original cost basis: the recipient assumes them at the price you paid and they are not refundable to the recipient. Membership moves in whole years only — you can send a year only if you hold a full year, so the year you are currently using cannot be sent while you are partway through it.
Credits reach the recipient immediately. You may reverse a transfer within 30 minutes of sending it. After that only we can reverse it, and only to correct an error — contact us promptly if you sent one in error. A membership is measured in calendar time, so reversing one returns only the time the recipient still has left — days that have already run are not given back, and if none are left we cannot reverse it at all. A transfer cannot be reversed once the recipient has used it in a completed session. Clients booking by text only (Section 7) cannot receive transfers. If you ask us to, we can make a transfer for you — we will email both accounts to say we did, and the same limits and reversals apply.
If a transfer is reversed and the recipient has already booked with the credits, we cancel those bookings to return the balance, most recent first, and only as many as we need. Nothing is forfeited when we do this — it counts as a cancellation by us under Section 7, so any late-booking fee comes back under Section 5 and no unit is lost — and we will contact the recipient. A session that has already happened is never reversed.
Daily limits: 10 DGCs, 5 Cover Charges, 10 Treatment Upgrades, 10 Holder Credits, or 3 membership years in any 24 hours.
Holding limits. Before a purchase completes we check the recipient has room under the limits in Sections 2–5; if not, it is declined before payment. Because a gift can sit unclaimed for a long time, a balance can be over its limit by the time a gift is claimed — claiming is not blocked, and we do not hold part of a gift back. If that leaves you above a limit, it simply means you cannot buy more of that credit until you have used some.
Booking a session for someone else. You can book and pay for a session that someone else attends. This is a gift in everything but name, and the same rule follows: your balance pays for it, and if the person who was due to attend does not turn up, the forfeit under Section 7 is yours, because it was your credit that held the slot. The attendee does not need an account with us to be booked in.
Gratuity Credits and reward balances may not be transferred.
Intake forms. Every client completes an annual intake and a short intake before each session. Both are required — we cannot treat you without them.
What you need to tell us. Complete them accurately and keep them current. Tell us about anything that could affect your session — injuries, recent surgery, allergies, pain levels, pregnancy, medications, and any medical condition relevant to hands-on work. If something changes between sessions, tell your therapist before the work begins. We can only work around what we know about.
Your therapist may adapt or decline a session. They may modify pressure or technique, avoid an area, shorten a session, or decline to work at all if they judge it unsafe or outside their scope. If we decline or shorten a session on health grounds, nothing is forfeited — no DGC, no Cover Charge, no late-booking fee, no deposit — and we will rebook you.
If you are unwell, stay home. Do not attend with a fever or contagious condition. Contact us and we will cancel or move your appointment with no forfeit, whatever notice you can give — if we cancel it, any late-booking fee comes back to your account (a Holder Credit or DGC as itself, a fee paid with money as a Holder Credit) and a cash or card session's deposit is returned to the way you paid; if we move it, the fee and any deposit move with it. That is the one exception to Section 5 that applies when the cancellation is yours, and it has no notice condition: tell us you are unwell and, if your appointment is cancelled rather than moved, the value comes back, however close to the appointment it is.
Your age. You must be 18 or older to hold an account and book. Your intake form asks for your birth year, and we may ask to see photo ID at the clinic to confirm it. We look at it and hand it back — we do not photograph, scan, copy or keep it, and nothing from it is stored beyond the fact that your age was confirmed. Utah law requires a parent or guardian's signature for certain consents given by a minor, which is why we need to be sure.
What this work is. Massage at Vitaliteit is therapeutic and non-sexual; requests of a sexual nature end the session immediately under Section 12. You are draped throughout your session, with only the area being worked uncovered. Chest work without breast draping is available only with a separate written consent, signed for that session, which you may withdraw at any point. You may stop the session, change the pressure, or ask your therapist to avoid an area at any point — you never need to give a reason.
What it is not. Massage therapy is not medical treatment and is not guaranteed to heal, fix, or cure any condition, injury, or illness. We do not diagnose. If you have a medical concern, see a physician — and if you are under a doctor's care for something massage may affect, get their clearance first.
Ordinary risks. Massage has normal, temporary after-effects; soreness for a day or two after deep tissue work is common. Some upgrades carry their own: hot stones and hot towels involve heat, cupping commonly leaves temporary circular discoloration, and essential oils may cause a reaction if you are sensitive. Tell your therapist about oil or scent sensitivities before your session.
We may refuse or end service for sexual advances, inappropriate language or behavior, rudeness, intoxication, poor hygiene, or failure to pay. Our therapists may end a session on these grounds at any time, and we may close an account on them.
If we end a session on these grounds the full cost of that session is still due — the DGCs or Cover Charge are claimed from your balance if available and otherwise remain payable. No other balance is forfeited: if we close your account, your remaining balances are refunded under Section 9.
By creating an account or purchasing from us you consent to emails about scheduling, reminders, balance updates, and account access. You can turn any of these off — individually or all at once — in the notification settings on your account page, and you may nominate a second address to be copied on them. Marketing emails are separate and you may unsubscribe at any time without affecting your account.
Your account page is the record. It holds your appointments, balances, agreements and anything needing your attention, including money owed on a changed booking. If you switch off the emails, that page is where you are expected to look.
These terms replace our previous DGC, Membership, Treatment Upgrade, Holder Credit, and Booking Account terms, which stopped applying on the date above. We keep those documents readable so you can always see what you agreed to at the time. Our Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference.
Warranties and liability. To the extent permitted by law we disclaim implied warranties and are not liable for indirect or consequential damages.
Governing law. Utah, with venue in Salt Lake County.
Before any claim, contact us at frontdesk@vitaliteitinfo.com and give us 30 days to resolve it. This does not prevent either of us from bringing a claim in small claims court.
Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable it is modified to the minimum extent needed to make it enforceable, and the rest remains in effect.
Assignment. You may not assign your account or balances except as permitted in Sections 9 and 10.
frontdesk@vitaliteitinfo.com · (801) 448-6850 9257 South Redwood Road, Suite 6-A · West Jordan, UT
Version 3 — consolidated terms, in force from 2 September 2026, updated 17 September 2026. Supersedes the DGC, Membership, Treatment Upgrade, Holder Credit and Booking Account terms.
What changed in the 17 September 2026 update: a cash or card session booked, claimed or accepted online now takes a deposit ($80, $110 or $140) when it is booked, with the rest of the rate paid after the session; Section 7 says when a deposit is returned to the way you paid and when it is kept, and Section 9 says a deposit is never part of your balance. Section 5 adds a third way to pay the late-booking fee — 1 DGC, which we ask you to confirm because it costs more — and says what comes back when the fee is returned. Sections 5 and 7 now say that, online, an appointment can be moved into the 72-hour window only onto an open waitlist slot that fits it, which we hold for you while you finish the move. A late-booking fee on a cash or card session is charged on top of its deposit. Section 2 now says that a waitlist or holder-offer claim can be extended with DGCs too, up to 120 minutes, when the time straight after it is free, and that a first session booked at the same moment you join as a member can be extended the same way.
What changed in version 3: Section 10 now says in words what the site has always done — that a membership moves in whole years, so the year you are partway through cannot be sent; that reversing a membership transfer returns only the time the recipient still has left; and that we can make a transfer for you if you ask. Nothing you agreed to has changed — these sentences describe rules that were already in effect. Version 3 also asks for your signature on the Privacy Policy alongside these terms, so that your record shows you were given both. And in Section 4, version 3 states that a Groupon session includes the Deep Tissue upgrade at no charge. That one is a new benefit rather than a restatement: nothing you hold is reduced, and nothing new is owed.
What changed in version 2: Section 6 now states the two cases where a Gratuity Credit does not expire. Section 10 now describes everything that can be gifted and what gifting a membership does, states that reversing a transfer may cancel the recipient's bookings, covers booking a session for someone else, and withdraws a promise to hold part of a gift back — we do not do that, and claiming is never blocked instead.