Used Company Card for Groceries

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that you KNEW what you were doing. Your story should have been that you accidentally grabbed the wrong card.

+1. I probably would have lied about the circumstances. I do compliance training (though not ethics) in my job and an inadvertent mistake + immediate mea culpa is handled much differently than knowingly violating a rule. Also, get Apple Pay. It's saved me more than once when I forgot my wallet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don’t ever do this as a Fed.

+1

That would be bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny story of why/how I left my first job: I was on travel for work and my corporate card was declined. I called up the person in charge of our cards at work and let them know. They casually said "oh yeah, CFO hasn't released funds for payment yet, sorry."

Awesome! K, so what do you suggest I do? I was told to use my personal card and submit for reimbursement. I was 22, fresh out of college all of 5 months, and only had a Discover card with a $1000 limit. The hotel that had to be switched to my card took up almost all of that availability as a hold. I was supposed to rent a car for a client meeting about 45 minutes away during day 3 of my trip. I was surviving off of hotel breakfast food that I hoarded up for the rest of the day and free snacks given out at the conference. I did not account for the fact that they needed to hold a larger deposit because I was under 25. I got to the rental place and my card wouldn't work. I was embarrassed af and ended up calling my boss instead of the lady in charge of the cards. I thought for sure he'd be sympathetic and maybe spur some action to get the corporate card working again, but no, he told me that it was pretty embarrassing to be an adult and only have one credit card to my name. He told me to figure it out.

I got off the phone and seriously sat in the middle of a sh!tty Budget rental place and cried. None of the employees knew what to do with me except give me pitying looks.

I ended up calling my mom who gave me her cc number over the phone to add to my Apple wallet. The car rental place wouldn't allow me to use it so I ended up taking Uber to and from the client meeting.

When I got back and submitted all my receipts for reimbursement, I got a quick email back that said nothing more than Rejected. Reason: personal cards not covered.

I went into a rage blackout. I don't even remember what I yelled or said to my boss. I know I quit and told them if I didn't have a check for the full amount before I was escorted out of the building, it would not be good for them.

That was apparently a threat. Who knew? I got escorted out and the police came. The one officer who dealt with me was SO nice. I thought for sure I was going to jail but I ended up only being trespassed from the office complex. He made sure I left with my reimbursement check, though. He also told me to not put that job on my resume. He said I was young enough and fresh enough that it wouldn't matter. He didn't believe I was an actual threat, just a dumb, broke kid.

Pretty sure it isn't illegal to tell someone you're going to beat their ass if they don't give you what you are owed. Why wasn't your employer arrested for fraud and theft?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have fired you.

You left your wallet at home and thought it was ok to use a corporate credit card?

The mistake is yours and honestly, the fact that you think this is even remotely ok makes me worry about your ethics.

What if you didn't have the company card, would it be ok to steal the food? To take someone else's credit card? See where this goes?

You committed theft. Period. You're lucky you weren't fired or worse and you want to complain? Ridiculous.

No, they did not commit theft. That you think he did makes me scared for anyone reporting to you.

NP Yes this is 100% theft the second she used the work card to pay for personal grocery and just because she tried to pay it back later doesn't negate the legal theft that happened at the grocery store when she knowingly used a work card for personal use. That's theft.

[Anonymous]

You should have treated it like a scenario where you didn’t have a credit card you could use. Because you didn’t have one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that you KNEW what you were doing. Your story should have been that you accidentally grabbed the wrong card.

Yes.

But the company's entire fiscal year accounting would still be ruined....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have fired you.

You left your wallet at home and thought it was ok to use a corporate credit card?

The mistake is yours and honestly, the fact that you think this is even remotely ok makes me worry about your ethics.

What if you didn't have the company card, would it be ok to steal the food? To take someone else's credit card? See where this goes?

You committed theft. Period. You're lucky you weren't fired or worse and you want to complain? Ridiculous.

No, they did not commit theft. That you think he did makes me scared for anyone reporting to you.

NP Yes this is 100% theft the second she used the work card to pay for personal grocery and just because she tried to pay it back later doesn't negate the legal theft that happened at the grocery store when she knowingly used a work card for personal use. That's theft.

Nope.

[Anonymous]

This is exactly the kind of stuff that will trip up feds and contractors who want a security clearance. It shows that you will bend the rules when it suits your purposes. No bueno.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have fired you.

You left your wallet at home and thought it was ok to use a corporate credit card?

The mistake is yours and honestly, the fact that you think this is even remotely ok makes me worry about your ethics.

What if you didn't have the company card, would it be ok to steal the food? To take someone else's credit card? See where this goes?

You committed theft. Period. You're lucky you weren't fired or worse and you want to complain? Ridiculous.

No, they did not commit theft. That you think he did makes me scared for anyone reporting to you.

NP Yes this is 100% theft the second she used the work card to pay for personal grocery and just because she tried to pay it back later doesn't negate the legal theft that happened at the grocery store when she knowingly used a work card for personal use. That's theft.

Oh please, tell all of us DCUM J.D.s more about the legal definition of theft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have fired you.

You left your wallet at home and thought it was ok to use a corporate credit card?

The mistake is yours and honestly, the fact that you think this is even remotely ok makes me worry about your ethics.

What if you didn't have the company card, would it be ok to steal the food? To take someone else's credit card? See where this goes?

You committed theft. Period. You're lucky you weren't fired or worse and you want to complain? Ridiculous.

No, they did not commit theft. That you think he did makes me scared for anyone reporting to you.

Hey genuis: this is theft. Unauthorized use of the card is theft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don’t ever do this as a Fed.

.

+1. I grabbed mine by mistake and cancelled the transaction as soon as I realized I paid with the wrong card. The transaction went through immediately followed by a refund. The business group had a cow when I told them what happened. So many questions and drama over a mistake and refund. I can't imagine what would've happened if the charge wasn't immediately refunded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have fired you.

You left your wallet at home and thought it was ok to use a corporate credit card?

The mistake is yours and honestly, the fact that you think this is even remotely ok makes me worry about your ethics.

What if you didn't have the company card, would it be ok to steal the food? To take someone else's credit card? See where this goes?

You committed theft. Period. You're lucky you weren't fired or worse and you want to complain? Ridiculous.

No, they did not commit theft. That you think he did makes me scared for anyone reporting to you.

NP Yes this is 100% theft the second she used the work card to pay for personal grocery and just because she tried to pay it back later doesn't negate the legal theft that happened at the grocery store when she knowingly used a work card for personal use. That's theft.

Oh please, tell all of us DCUM J.D.s more about the legal definition of theft.

It's 100% theft but they can't prove intent.

It was a stupid move OP.

[Anonymous]

If I was in OP's circumstances, found myself at Target with $180 on the belt and realized I didn't have my credit card..... it would literally never dawn on me to use a work card. Total theft, totally fireable offense.

Maybe if it was an emergency I would have done so.... but would never have come out guns blazing like OP that she's right and work is wrong. I would have been extremely apologetic and aware that I did something wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I was in OP's circumstances, found myself at Target with $180 on the belt and realized I didn't have my credit card..... it would literally never dawn on me to use a work card. Total theft, totally fireable offense.

Maybe if it was an emergency I would have done so.... but would never have come out guns blazing like OP that she's right and work is wrong. I would have been extremely apologetic and aware that I did something wrong.

Not theft. Proof is that it could have been accident

[Anonymous]

I was on a work trip for a week and used corporate CC for all the transactions as they were all work related (transportation, food, hotel). While going back home from the work trip, I bought something for my kids at the airport. Since I was habituated with using the company CC for a week, I mistakenly gave it to the checkout associate. He half swiped it and I literally screamed asking him to stop! Not his mistake but I realized my mistake. Thankfully the transaction didn't go through and I completed it with my personal CC. Later, I chatted with an HR friend (same company) asking her what would have happened if I had mistakenly used the corporate CC. She said it happens more often than we expect and that's okay if you provide an explanation and do the paperwork to give the money back to the company. This was at a well known and a big corporate. I don't think it is considered theft if you can genuinely explain that it was a mistake.