Call times

Call times are the allowed dialing hours you attach to a campaign. They tell VICIdial something like "only dial between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m." — and, importantly, in the called person's local time, not yours. A lead in another time zone is checked against the clock where they live, so a call center in one region never accidentally rings someone in another at dawn.

Why it matters: calling people at the wrong hour is both rude and, in many places, illegal. Rules about when you may call are part of the same body of law that gives you do-not-call obligations. Call times are the dialer's built-in guardrail so an enthusiastic campaign doesn't ring someone's phone at 6 a.m. and land you a complaint or a fine.

When a call time blocks a number, VICIdial simply won't load it into the hopper yet — it stays in the list until the local hours come back around. This works alongside a filter, which narrows which leads you call at all, and your dnc list, which blocks people entirely. None of these overlap — call times are about the clock, the others about the list. A blocked number simply never reaches an agent, so it won't show up in your live status view at all.

Set sensible windows from day one, and double-check that the time zone of your leads is right — a wrong zone is the usual reason a careful operator still ends up dialing too early. The time zone is worked out from the lead's phone number and address, so leads with missing or wrong location data are the ones most likely to slip through at a bad hour. It's worth spot-checking a sample of your list before a big push.

The same windows apply to live-agent campaigns and to hands-off methods like broadcast dialing alike. Treat call times as a floor, not a target: just because you're legally allowed to dial until 8 p.m. doesn't mean late-evening calls are good for your business. If you want to read more about staying inside the rules, see our TCPA 2026 update.