Technically PDT is always 7 hours behind UTC. PST is always 8 hours behind. We just change which one we use twice a year. Pacific time makes sense when you realize Fremont is the center of the universe.
Yup, this is why I always say “US ET” (I'm on the east coast). I don't trust myself or anyone else to get it right, and if the other party is converting anyway, their conversion tool (google?) should be able to handle that. (Of course, the date is necessary but implicit, but that's usually fine too.)
Indeed. There are Americans who will tell me PST, when they meant PDT but forgot to mention that. Now I have to track the American DST calendar as well as European DST calendar to do the conversion.
There are also people who tell me GMT (because they think that term means "the time in London") when they meant BST (because in summer, London doesn't operate on GMT).