Requested ship date?

Question

A company has the words _This order will ship on 9/14/2010 from our Virginia location_ on their website. The user could request a ship date in the future. The internal, recommended replacement is _This order is requested to ship on 9/14/2010 from our Virginia location_ but the readability of the statement is in question. What is the correct way to combine a requested ship date and a location statement in a single sentence?

Answer 1

If the order is shipped per company timelines on a certain date, I assume that is captured by the first sentence you quote "This order will ship on.... from our Virginia location." This assumes in my mind that the company is controlling the shipping date and location and would be a statement made subsequent to an order being placed. The statement is intended for the consumer/purchaser to understand when and where the order will be shipped.

It seems to me you are asking about a circumstance where the purchaser makes a date request that is different than (further in the future apparently) the company determined shipping date. In other words this is a special request. I don't see why the statement associated with this has to be any different. The purchaser clicks on the date (and possibly the location but maybe not) and if the company can accommodate that request than the next window in the order process states, "This order will be shipped on <date selected by the purchaser> from our Virginia location." Why does there need to be a different statement?

If I am not understanding something that is motivating this question than I suggest that the second sentence is fine. No need to change it. Reads pretty clearly to me especially if it is prompted to display after the consumer has made a proactive choice and when that choice and the date displayed are the same date. If these conditions are met then I think there would be no confusion.

Regards,

Bill