diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8fd7b56..30139ed 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 # CHANGELOG
+
+## 0.3.36
+- [x] update: Reftime handling works if reftime is malformed
+
 ## 0.3.35
 - [x] add: validations for the input file for conversation tagging
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 810a948..c0e7ffa 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [tool.poetry]
 name = "skit-labels"
-version = "0.3.35"
+version = "0.3.36"
 description = "Command line tool for interacting with labelled datasets at skit.ai."
 authors = []
 license = "MIT"
diff --git a/skit_labels/db.py b/skit_labels/db.py
index c2eb0cd..a82d282 100644
--- a/skit_labels/db.py
+++ b/skit_labels/db.py
@@ -26,6 +26,15 @@
 )
 
 
+def update_reftime(reftime, tz):
+    try:
+        reftime = to_datetime(reftime)
+        return reftime.astimezone(tz).isoformat()
+    except Exception as e:
+        print("Couldn't convert thr timezone for Reftime: " + str(reftime))
+        return reftime
+
+
 def build_task(
     d: Dict, task_type: str, data_id: Optional[str] = None, tz=pytz.UTC
 ) -> Task:
@@ -39,8 +48,7 @@ def build_task(
         # Since the reftime from db is in UTC, we convert it to our timezone. This
         # is needed as saying 12 pm means different things in different timezones
         # and can't be translated without doing something stupid.
-        task.reftime = to_datetime(task.reftime)
-        task.reftime = task.reftime.astimezone(tz).isoformat()
+        task.reftime = update_reftime(task.reftime, tz)
     elif task_type == "simulated_call":
         task = SimulatedCallTask.from_dict(d)
     elif task_type == "audio_segment":