Whoops...

I did something yesterday that could have gotten me in big trouble at work. I was very busy at the end of the day because I had procrastinated too much earlier in the day. I was rushing to get my work done (because it annoys me when I have to leave work in my basket for the next day - I feel like I'm starting off the day behind)... and... well, let me explain something first.

My boss signed up for this program where we buy Visa gift cards from a company. The company then gives us an extra 10% worth of cards each month. So, my boss buys $6500 worth of cards and they send us an extra $650. He and two of my coworkers buy cards from the office for a 10% discount. The cards that are leftover, we use for anything we need in the office - fuel, coffee, soda, food, etc.

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Somehow I got chosen to be in charge of the cards. I keep all of the receipts and once a card is empty, I turn the receipts into my supervisor. Once a card has been verified as empty, I shred it... I'm sure you can see where this is going...

We receive our cards in the amount $250. I gave two cards to my coworker yesterday when she left to go to the store to get coffee. One was almost empty and one was a new card. She emptied the one and used $19.91 on the second. Both cards were laying on my desk. I had put a small post-it note on the card with a balance so I could write how much was left on it... the empty card still had its post-it on it from the last time it was used. I grabbed, what I thought was, the empty card and took it to the shredder. When I got back to my desk, I saw that the card still laying there was the empty one. I checked, just to be sure, and my heart dropped when I realized I shredded the wrong card... the card I had just shredded still had a balance of $230.09.

It was 4:55 pm when this happened and I leave at 5. I quickly emailed my contact at the company we get the cards from and told her what had happened. Luckily, I keep track of all of the card numbers in case anything happens... so I had that... and it came in a batch of other cards with the same expiration date... so I had that... I did not, however, have the CCID code on the back of the card. Once I got home, I logged into my work email and found the customer service number for the company. I called them, hoping to speak to a live human being. Unfortunately their offices were closed...

So, I sat at home, half the night, worried about this. I mean, losing $230 of your company's money is a big mistake. I decided that when I told my boss, I'd offer to pay for it because it was my mistake. I get my tax return back this week, so I'd have the money to cover it, though I REALLY didn't want to...

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This morning, while I was getting ready for work, I had a genius thought... What if I got out the shredded pieces of card and could find the CCID number? Then we'd at least be able to use it for online purchases or something like that. When I got to work, I dug around in the trash and... SUCCESS!!! I found the CCID number... or so I thought. As soon as I got back to my desk with some other pieces of the card, I realized that the number I found was for the empty card. So, I went and dug around some more and, luckily, was able to find the correct CCID number. Whew!

I told my boss what had happened, since I knew we could still use the card at this point, and he told me that he wanted me to use that card soon... even if it was just to buy another gift card. At this point, I told him that I had called the customer service of the company and was expecting a call back telling me if there was anything they could do. Since then, they've called back, but they haven't given me an answer yet. So, now I wait... to see if they can issue another card. Haha... I'm so relieved.