Coupons DON'T WORK from their scheduled date outside the U.S. due to time difference

[LauraB1]

Hi,

You have a big issue with your discount coupons and them not working from their scheduled dates outside the U.S.

For instance, it is now 11am on Monday April 20 in Australia.

I wish to send out some coupons today that are valid (in MY timezone) from 20 April (today). When I set these coupons up and test if they work first, it always says 'this coupon is not available yet.'

I have checked this out before and this is because they only switch over to being valid once Los Angeles ticks over to midnight on said day (it's 6pm on the 19th April there at the moment, and it's 11am on the 20th here in Australia). For ME though in Australia, this means I have to WAIT another 6 hours here (until 5pm, when the day is nearly over) for the coupon to work.

Can this be fixed?? It's really causing an issue because they don't work properly outside the U.S.

The best way to fix this would be to allow the coupon to be 'backdated'. As in, when I was setting the coupons up this morning, if I could have entered the 19th April instead of the 20th, they would have worked. But the system won't let me put in the 19th.

If it's too hard for you guys to change the date settings to configure it for each separate timezone in the world, can you at LEAST allow people to put in the 'start' date for the coupon as the day BEFORE. This would fix this issue for eveyrone outside America.

[Florabella]

Completly agree.. I've foound time after time this website is based for Amerincans only.

[Adam7]

Thanks for posting about this, @LauraB1 and @Florabella. You are correct - coupons currently use server time, which in this case is PST and not your local time. Which time zones are you both in?

[LauraB1]

I'm in the Sydney, Australia time zone.

As I said in my original post, can you allow the coupon 'calendar' you click on to set the coupon start date, to allow us to select a day that has past (in my timezone) but not passed in yours?

For instance, the other day I was trying to do a coupon at 11am on 20th April (it was still 6pm on the 19th in the U.S.). You'd think based on what you said about the server location, that the system would have let me select the '19th' as a start date (as it was still the 19th in the U.S.) but it didn't, it was greyed out.

So there's some kind of inconsistency there.

If I was allowed to select the 19th on that occasion, the whole thing would have worked. Because I would have been effectively telling the coupno 'start working from the 19th', and even though it was a day later here, it would have worked.

So can you just fix up this calendar feature where you select the date? This would fix the issue.

[Adam7]

I updated something on our end for your site which should make coupon start and end times use your timezone, @LauraB1. If you aren't seeing that let me know!

[LauraB1]

Awesome. I did try one tonight and it seemed to work!

I'll let you know if any issues in future!

[swapngrow]

Hi Adam - also in Australia : can you make the equivelent modifications for me - having the same trouble.   The coupon input does not even display in the checkout

[Bernadette3]

Hi @swapngrow I'm not sure what change Adam made to allow that to work for Laura, but I'll see if I can get some information for you. Adam is out for the weekend, but will be back on Sunday. 

The other thing I noticed about your account, though, is that your sites are using a Connect and Starter plan. Coupons require a Business plan or higher which is probably why you do not see the option at checkout. 

[Lightleak]

Can you provide the same fix for me? My timezone is EST and my sale is set to start at midnight tonight.

[Bernadette3]

This thread is for users (mostly) in the AU area that were not able to setup coupons properly because of the time difference. I believe this was resolved sometime in August. 

Is your store set to EST time? What happens when you try to setup your coupon for a specific day?