Some ordinary ways of saying a time were being booked as a different time. A caller who said “half past seven in the evening” could be booked for half past seven in the morning. “Five past nine” could become five o’clock. A time said or written with a full stop, like 3.30pm, could become three o’clock. And “twenty to one” was treated as twenty to one at night, so callers asking for a lunchtime appointment were told the business was closed.
In each case nothing looked wrong at the time: a sensible-sounding time was repeated back and confirmed, so the first anyone would know was somebody arriving at the wrong hour.
The assistant was also saying some times wrongly. An evening appointment could be read out as a morning one, and a business opening at six in the morning had its early slots offered in a way that came back as six in the evening.
Separately, a business open late was telling callers it was closed when it was not. A shop open until eight in the evening, asked for half past seven, said it was closed. It now explains that it cannot start an appointment that late and offers the nearest times instead — which keeps the booking rather than sending the caller away.
All of this is fixed. Callers can say a time in whatever way comes naturally and be booked for the time they said. Businesses that open early or stay open into the evening were the most affected; a business working ordinary daytime hours would not have seen it.