Oct 29, 2005

Hurricane Wilma - South Florida

We sincerely apologize for failing to provide outstanding customer service to some of our customers during the wake of Hurricane Wilma.

In anticipation of the storm, and because we knew many people needed their items in time for Halloween, we worked throughout weekend before and found a Post Office at Miami International Airport that accepted packages for shipment on Sunday. Hurricane Wilma hit Miami early the next morning Monday October 24th. Immediately after the storm passed Monday afternoon few of us made it in despite dangerous conditions, downed power lines and street lights, trees, etc. and were without electric power (as were 98% of Miami) working feverishly in the dark with flashlights preparing orders for shipping. We were luckily able to find a telephone that did not require power later that afternoon to have at least one working telephone line. Customers that made failed attempts to call us on this day were left upset or confused. The following day Tuesday October 25th there was not a Post Office, FedEx, UPS, or DHL office operational in the entire city of Miami (or several hundred miles north). We sent a van with packages to Orlando to get all of your orders we could into the system so everyone could get their orders in time for Halloween. The trip normally takes 4 hours from Miami, but because many people in South Florida was trying to escape the darkness the trip ended up taking 9.5 hours! The Post Office had locations open on Wednesday while still only 10% of Miami had power. Many of our staff had trouble getting to work because public transportation was not in operation, gas stations could not pump gas without electricity, and the few gas stations that could pump gas had 4 hour waiting lines and if you were lucky they did not run out of gas before your turn. Authorities placed an 8pm curfew on the entire city of Miami, so the few of us that could make it in were prevented from working late. Days after the storm on wednesday afternoon BellSouth's emergency back up generators failed shutting down it's entire DSL service in Miami we lost our Internet service for almost a week and were delayed with responding to customer emails.

We know that some of you were depending on us for your Halloween orders and that we let you down. We sincerely apologize for not providing you with excellent service. We understand that many of you may have attempted to contact us during this period and had difficulty. We sincerely apologize for not being there to assist you immediately. Thank you for being understanding as we made it through this difficult time.

Despite the devistation Hurricane Wilma left Miami, Florida with all your friends here at We Love Colors have suffered no physical harm to ourselves and very limited property damage. We sincerely appreciate inquiries we received from customers that were concerned about us.

For those of you who did receive your orders in time for Halloween and sent thank you emails we really appreciate it. We love those emails and would love to see photos of your costume. Click here to send us your photo.

We Love Colors will make good on our commitment of 5% of September 2005 Sales to donate for Hurricane Katrina Relief. We know firsthand how devastating these storms can be. We will post information on that within next couple of days.

Thank you, Your Friends at We Love Colors


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