Abusing My Powers

Awhile ago, the bank I work for started a new program in which you can get pretty pictures on your debit card. There are other things that go with it, like donations to charities and organizations or whatever, but the way I see it is that your debit card is now purty when it wasn't before. I didn't pay much attention to this, mainly because I didn't know how to switch people over to the new shiny cards. But then various coworkers and customers started turning up with their pretty check cards, and one card had a wolf on it. (It was for a non-profit wilderness-protection group.) Don just loves wolves. So I figured out how to do it so that I could get Don the wolfie card. Of course I didn't change his account myself because we're not supposed to mess with our own accounts; one of my coworkers made the switch and it was a nice surprise: Hey, what's this in the mail? Why it's a lovely new check card, with a wolf on it! That you will never confuse with your credit card again! (Because our debit and credit cards are nearly identical, leading to issues like, "Why on earth did you CHARGE a 12-pack of beer?" "I didn't mean to-- must have handed over the wrong card.")

Don loved it. And there were no problems with his existing card; the new card had the same number and everything. Fast forward to last night...

When I was out to dinner with some friends of ours. My friend (I'll call her "Jen") was asking about the fees on her account, and I offered to waive any future fees, cuz I have crazy authority like that! Not to the point of refunding fees already charged though... that would be too much power for me. So this morning I find Jen's account and set it to waive maintenance fees for the coming year, no problem. But THEN...

I remember that Jen is a rabid, obsessed, Red Sox fanatic. Crazy. And we have a Red Sox debit card! And wouldn't it be fantastic for her to get, as a surprise, a debit card that displays her devotion to her team! (You know, in case anyone missed the baseball cap.) She would love that, really. Except that I didn't realize that for some reason the Red Sox special debit card (unlike the Wilderness Whoevers) is a MASTERCARD, not a Visa-- which is what most debit cards-- including Jen's existing debit card-- are. So when I changed the card from plain to fancy, it also changed from Visa to Mastercard-- which automatically closed the old debit card and issued a new number.

Which left me in the embarrassing position of having to call Jen and tell her that I had just accidentally canceled her debit card, and totally ruin the surprise. I'm glad that she's got a good sense of humor, in any case.