EventBrite Time Zones – URGENT Please!

[Jennifer]

Hi guys! Ok, you’re killing me a bit here. 🙁 I’m following up to this post, which was closed: https://tri.be/support/forums/topic/eventbrite-ticket-time-zones/#post-816503
With the latest update, the behavior has changed, but it’s still wrong – more wrong. Now the time zone field is staying put, but the times for the event are changing. Here’s an example:
http://blog.graphisoftus.com/event/bim-test-drive-workshop-seattle-2 – this event is actually from 9am-12pm Pacific Time. When I save it, and go back to EventBrite, it now stays Pacific Time, but it shifts the time to 6am-9am: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bim-test-drive-workshop-seattle-registration-13897946131

Here’s what I’m looking for in a nutshell: The times AND time zones need to be IDENTICAL in both Tribe and on EventBrite. Plain and simple. The new problem you’ve created is even worse because it cannot be corrected manually (that I’ve been able to figure out yet).

Basically, you need to take the time zone of our home office OUT of the time zone equation. The location of our office makes no difference. The ONLY time zone that matters is that of the event location. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to be a bit stern here and demand that this gets fixed ASAP because I have no work-around to get my times to match anymore. You guys are awesome and I’m not trying to be cranky, but this is a VERY significant problem. Please respond ASAP? Thanks!

[Jennifer]

Ok, I just figured out the work around. Now instead of resetting the time zone in EB, I have to reset the time. So the urgency is lessened, but this still needs to be fixed PLEASE! 🙂

[Barry]

I’m sorry it’s not working for you.

Basically, you need to take the time zone of our home office OUT of the time zone equation. The location of our office makes no difference.

So can you confirm what your local (WordPress) time zone actually is? I’m not sure we can take this out of the equation entirely – though perhaps we can introduce some sort of toggle – without causing problems for other users.

[Jennifer]

Hi! Yes, our home office location is in Massachussetts (Eastern Time). But we conduct events all over the US and Canada, so the only thing that matters is the location of the event it self. Where our home office is located has no bearing. If you could create a toggle in the preferences to ignore home-office/WP time zone, that would be AWESOME! Thanks! 🙂

[Barry]

OK – and just to get a better handle on this, can you run me through your typical workflow?

Are you for example creating an event locally (within your WordPress site) and using our plugin to push it live on Eventbrite? If so, are you subsequently adjusting the timezone on eventbrite.com –  and finding the problem surfaces when next you update your local copy of the event?

 

[Jennifer]

Hi! This is my typical workflow:
1) set up EventBrite – date, time, venue, tickets, order form, order confirmations, discount codes, etc. (I do not type in the event description here, however – it gets eaten alive when imported into Tribe).
2) Push EB live and view the event – grab the ID.
3) Import EB ID into Tribe. Verify the info, fix the times (cause they always self-adjust), categorize the event. Push live to WordPress.
4) Go back into EventBrite and adjust the times again, because once I save in Tribe/WP, it overrides EB times because Tribe/WP thinks all my events are in ET.

Because EB is the system that sends out all the confirmation emails and reminders, we need the dates on both sides to match.

I’ve tried reversing the workflow and starting in Tribe first, but when it goes into EB, it goes into a blank template and I have to redo my branding in EB for every event – which takes forever and a day. The workflow I’m using, after much trial and error, is the most efficient. If we could just get the event times and time zones to stay true and disregard our home office time zone, we’d be happy campers. Thanks!

[Barry]

OK, that makes sense.

At the same time, what you’ve documented here is in fact the expected behaviour and the plugin has been crafted over a number of releases to work in this form as the direct result of user feedback.

I can definitely understand your particular scenario though and imagine if we make timezone corrections optional this problem will be resolved. To that end, I’ll log an issue on our internal tracker for that purpose and we’ll look at the viability of implementing such an option in a future release.

I’ll link that issue to this forum thread and we’ll do our best to keep you updated as to progress 🙂

 

[Jennifer]

Yes, please. The inability to resolve this, for us, will likely mean we have to find a different solution. We are inputting events almost daily in all time zones and we are constantly getting smacked with the discrepancy and having to manually correct – which often slips through the cracks and confuses our customers. And it just adds time and more time to our already time-consuming process. This is a deal-breaker for us. Thanks!

[Barry]

I can definitely understand that.

I do want to note though that this is something we need to spend a little more time reviewing and it’s unlikely any such change or fix will make it into our upcoming release, as the scope of that release has largely already been defined.

Nonetheless we will certainly look into this further and will aim to drop updates in here as we go. For the time being though, as there isn’t too much more I can add at this time, I will go ahead and close this thread (we’ll re-open to post updates as needed).

Thanks again.

[Leah]

Hi there,

I wanted to post here and update you. Although we weren’t able to get a fix for the issue your reported into our upcoming 3.9 release, it is still on our list to get corrected. Thank you for reporting the problem, and for your patience and support while we get a solid fix in place. We’ll update you when a solution is ready to go.

Best,
Leah

[Leah]

Hi there,

Thank you for your support and patience while we worked on this issue. We are happy announce that we have incorporated a fix into our upcoming 3.10 release. Keep an eye out for a release announcement on our site and for updates available on your WordPress dashboard.

While we have thoroughly tested this release and are confident of its quality, it is impossible to account for every edge case in the wide world of WordPress. If you run into trouble with the new version or you don’t see your reported issue corrected, please start a new thread and we will be happy to work with you.

Thanks again for your patience here. We’re excited to get this version out the door and into your hands!

Best,
The Events Calendar Team

[Leah]

Hello,

Thank you again for bringing this issue to our attention. We’re happy to say that we have added a fix for this into our upcoming version 3.11 release. Keep an eye on your Updates page for the new version. If you have any trouble with the update (or are still seeing this problem after you update) please start a new thread and we’d be happy to help out.

Thank you for your patience while we got this release ready to go!

Best,
Leah
and the rest of The Events Calendar team

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