Defne and her friend Maya had arranged a video call to plan a weekend together. Defne would be away for work, so they chose a time when she expected to be in her hotel. She saved the meeting in her phone and sent Maya a short message: “See you at eight.” Both friends thought the arrangement was clear.
On the evening of the call, Defne opened her laptop at eight in her local time. Maya was not online. There was a message from her, sent earlier: “I waited for twenty minutes. Are we still doing this?” Defne immediately felt guilty, then confused. She checked their conversation and saw that neither of them had written the time zone.
Maya had understood eight o’clock in İstanbul, where she was. Defne had been thinking about the time at her destination. Their calendars had not solved the problem because they had each entered the meeting separately. A simple invitation with a shared time zone would have made their different assumptions visible.
Defne apologised and explained the mistake without blaming her phone. Maya admitted that she had assumed Defne meant İstanbul time. They agreed to speak the following day, using one calendar invitation that showed the meeting in each person’s local time. Defne checked the displayed time before accepting it.
The next call went smoothly. They chose a quiet weekend with a walk and a meal, leaving the rest unplanned. Afterwards, Defne thought about how easily a short message could sound precise while leaving out an important detail. She still liked quick messages, but for future arrangements she decided to include the date, time zone and place. Being clear at the beginning could save both people an unnecessary apology later.