Missing an Appointment Set on a Smartphone while in a Different Time Zone

by Luke Chung, FMS President

When travelling in Texas recently, I received an email for a noon lunch appointment the following week. So I added it to Outlook on my SmartPhone as usual.

Unfortunately, I missed the appointment because when I returned home to Eastern time, the appointment appeared on my calendar as 1 PM (noon in Texas) and I stood her up. It was rude, embarrassing, and bad for business.

I actually saw the appointment on my calendar earlier in the morning and thought it was weird that I had scheduled 1 PM. I just presumed my calendar was correct since it has always kept better track of time than me.....until I received a text saying, "Where are you?"

Why Was My Appointment Wrong?

When you create an appointment in Outlook on a laptop/desktop, it uses the PC's time zone. It doesn't matter where you are, the time zone doesn't change unless you change your clock.

When you create an appointment on a smartphone, it uses its clock which is automatically adjusted to the current time zone. A noon appointment in Texas remains a noon appointment in Texas time, so when I returned to Virginia, it became 1 PM and I'm late! To avoid this, be careful when creating appointments while visiting another time zone. You need set it to the time "back home".