Troubleshooting: appointments
With the Built-in calendar, the service determines which time slots the assistant and the booking page may offer, and booked appointments go into the connected calendar. With Cal.com or eTermin, that system handles the times and the booking, and a service's settings don't apply. When something goes wrong, the cause is usually the service's availability, the calendar connection or a prompt that contradicts the service. Below are the most common problems. Services and connections are changed by an Editor or Admin; a Viewer doesn't see those screens.
Symptoms, causes and fixes
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No free slots offered | Book appointments is off or no service is chosen, availability too narrow, minimum notice too high, buffer, booking window too short, or the calendar is busy | Check the task, widen availability, lower the minimum notice, check the calendar |
| Slots in the wrong time zone | The service's time zone (with Cal.com: your business's) differs from your calendar's; with eTermin, the times come from that system | Set the time zones the same; with eTermin, check the times there |
| Appointments don't appear in Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 | Access has stopped working, or no calendar or another calendar is chosen | Choose Reconnect and check Account and Calendar to book in |
| Cal.com booking fails | API key invalid, wrong event type id, or the customer gave no email address | Check the key and the id, and ask for an email address |
| Reminders are not sent | No reminder time set, confirmations off, no customer email address or mobile number, no SMS-capable number, or appointment created too close to the start | Set the times, enable the confirmations and check the numbers |
| Customer cannot reschedule or cancel | Customers may reschedule or Customers may cancel is off | Turn the option on |
| Public booking page shows an error | Wrong business or service slug, service deleted, or no subscription | Copy the link again and check your subscription |
| Assistant mentions times outside availability | Prompt contradicts the service | Remove times from the prompt |
| Double bookings at the same time | No calendar connected, or access has stopped working, so busy times in your calendar don't count | Connect Google Calendar or Microsoft 365, or choose Reconnect |
The assistant offers no free slots
A slot is only offered if it falls within the service's Availability, is far enough ahead (Minimum notice (hours)), not too far ahead (Booking window (days)) and is free, including the Buffer between appointments (min). Busy time is every appointment of your business, also of another service, and whatever is busy in the calendars you chose on the service. Times step by the duration, from the start of each time block: if the duration doesn't fit in a block, that block gives no slot.
- Open the assistant, go to the Tasks tab and check that Book appointments is on and that Service shows the right service.
- Open the service under Appointments → Services and check its Availability. With Same as opening hours, an Admin changes the times under Settings → Business, on the Opening hours card. If those are off, office hours apply.
- Lower Minimum notice (hours) and Buffer between appointments (min) if they are too strict.
- Raise Booking window (days) if customers want to book further ahead.
- Check that the connected calendars aren't full of blocking events, including those under Also check for busy times.
If you use Cal.com or eTermin, the times come from that system. Check the availability there.
See Appointments.
Slots are in the wrong time zone
The assistant and the booking page state times in the service's time zone; your calendar shows them in its own time zone. If the assistant offers 2pm while the calendar shows 1pm, those two don't match. With Same as opening hours, the service follows your business's time zone, which an Admin changes under Settings → Business. With Own hours, you choose the Time zone on the service's Booking rules card. Make this time zone match your calendar's. With Cal.com, the assistant uses your business's time zone, which an Admin changes under Settings → Business; with eTermin, the times come from eTermin. A service's time zone doesn't apply to the assistant then.
Appointments don't appear in your calendar
Appointments are created with the account you connected. Check under Settings → Connections whether that connection shows the notice Reconnect your calendar; if so, choose Reconnect. Then check on the service, under Calendar sync, that Account shows that connection and that Calendar to book in is the calendar you mean.
With the Built-in calendar, every booked appointment is under Appointments → Schedule, even if the calendar event could not be created. Such an appointment isn't added to your calendar later. With Cal.com or eTermin, the booking is only in that system. If you test with Try it out under Call or Chat, bookings are only simulated, unless you turn on Perform actions for real. A Real call books for real. With eTermin, rescheduling or cancelling during a simulated test does change the booking in eTermin.
A Cal.com booking fails
Open the assistant, go to the Tasks tab and, under Book appointments, check the fields Cal.com event type id and Cal.com API key. An expired or revoked key makes fetching times and booking fail. Also check that the id belongs to the right Cal.com event type. If in doubt, create a new key in Cal.com, put it in the existing connection with Replace under Settings → Connections, and paste the id again.
Cal.com requires an email address: if the customer has none, the assistant can't book. For eTermin, check eTermin service id, eTermin base URL and eTermin API key in the same place.
Reminders are not sent
Reminders go out at the times under Reminders (hours before), on the service's Confirmations & reminders card, through the same channels as the confirmations: Email confirmation and SMS confirmation. If both are off, no reminders go out. An email needs a customer email address, which isn't required in a conversation. An SMS isn't sent to a landline and needs an SMS-capable number at your business. If an appointment is booked more than an hour and a half after the reminder time (for example an appointment in 2 hours with a 24-hour reminder), the send time has already passed and the reminder is skipped. Bookings in Cal.com or eTermin get no reminder from us. See Appointments and Troubleshooting: SMS and email.
The customer cannot reschedule or cancel
Rescheduling and cancelling are two separate options on the service's Booking rules card: Customers may reschedule and Customers may cancel. The page behind the link in the confirmation only shows the button of the option that is on. A cancelled or completed appointment shows no buttons. If both options are off, confirmations and reminders contain no link. The confirmation screen of the booking page always shows Reschedule or cancel this appointment; the page behind it then has no buttons. If you turn an option on later, messages already sent without a link don't get one; the next reminder does contain the link.
During a conversation with the Built-in calendar, the assistant can only reschedule or cancel if the phone number in the conversation is the same as on the appointment. With Cal.com it can only book. With eTermin it needs the booking number.
The public booking page shows an error
The booking page has the form https://<dashboard-domain>/en/book/<business-slug>/<service-slug>.
- The business was not found: the business slug in the link is wrong.
- The service was not found: the service slug is wrong. The service was deleted, or the slug was changed with Edit at Booking link; the old link then stops working. Copy the link again from Booking link, on the service's Booking rules card.
- Booking is unavailable until you have a subscription: booking through the page needs a subscription. Links in existing confirmations keep working.
The assistant mentions times outside availability
If the prompt contains times ("we schedule appointments between 8am and 6pm") that are wider than the service's schedule, the assistant may mention those times. Booking them then fails: every booking is checked against the service's availability, and a time outside it is refused. Remove all times and availability rules from the prompt: the service is the single source of truth for what can be booked.
Double bookings at the same time
Appointments booked through the assistant or the booking page always count as busy, across all your services. What is in your calendar outside of us we only see with a connected calendar. Without a connection, or if access has stopped working, a customer can therefore book a time that is already busy in your calendar. Connect Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 on the service under Calendar sync, or choose Reconnect, so existing appointments block availability. If you use more calendars, choose them under Also check for busy times. Bookings in Cal.com or eTermin don't count towards a service's availability.
Still stuck?
Can't find your problem here, or did the fix not help? Let us know via Report a problem and include the service name, the link to the conversation and the slot the customer wanted.