It's a server misconfiguration. You need to add the following line to php.ini

date.timezone = "America/New_York"

They say they won't add that to a global file. Any other suggestions? Should I just keep adding <?php
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');
?> to the tops of all my offending files?

They say they won't add that to a global file. Any other suggestions?

Try to add the following in .htaccess file

SetEnv TZ America/New_York

If I were you, I would leave this hosting asap. Sorry to say that, but as I can see from your posts you happened to move to a crappy hosting. Any normal hosting company allows custom php.ini and .htaccess files.

I apologise that, I can help nothing. But it is assured, that you will find the correct decision. Do not despair.

Thanks folks... I have brought your input up to my host.. not so much the "crappy" part, b/c they've actually been quite responsive and helpful thus far. Anyway, I will post the final outcome when this is solved... thanks again!

FYI, the reason I went with this particular host is because of their reputation as experts with ZenCart and PCI compliance, which is a major plus for me since my previous host was causing me PCI non-compliance fees, and they are a rock solid host (a backbone no less): Hurricane Electric, whom I still highly recommend, but they don't really cater to small ecommerce sites like mine... if I could afford a dedicated server with them, then that would've been a different story. Since moving to my new host, Camelot Hosting, I've become PCI compliant, which saves my company over $300/year, not to mention their wonderful customer service as it relates to ZenCart.

With that said, I don't know why they can't add that line of code to the php.ini file... perhaps since it is a global file it effects their customers in other timezones?

I Had the same problem and did add the code:

date.timezone = "America/New_York"

to my php.ini and it did work succesfully!
Thank's for your help!!!