WOW, yesterday was a day where I became mortified of something at work at my expense, yet it was hard as hell not to laugh out loud at the same time.

Quick Setup to the story:

As most of you know, I test web sites.  My current company does online auction management software and sometimes we’re required to create new user IDs in production, as opposed to our test environment.  The problem is we have to use our real credit cards in the live environment.  The First and Last Name in your profile can be different from the First and Last Name associated with your billing address.  To break up the monotony of creating many user IDs, sometimes we take liberties with names.

Our system is set up so you get a free trial, after which you’ll be charged a certain amount to your credit card.  Normally we stay on top of the accounts we create and either change them to an employee account or cancel the account so our credit card isn’t charged.  I got an email from accounting last week asking if I had created an ID called Rocktoberfest.  Having totally forgot I had created some users for our German site, I thanked her for catching that one (along with Rocktoberfest Zwei).

This weekend I opened my credit card statement and noticed some other Marketworks charges and realized some other IDs must have slipped through the cracks.  Sure enough, as she was searching on my credit card number through the Cybersource site (since she couldn’t search on my real name), a few names appeared that I recognized immediately as ones I created.

Now, there were some harmless ones such as Shrimpon Thebarbie for an Australian account I had created.  But then I looked down the list and I internally cringed, as names that are funny to a group of guys in their thirties might not translate to giggles for older female accountants.  The following conversation is a loose interpretation of what transpired yesterday.

{Her} “Is this Turd Ferguson account one of yours?”

{Me, meekly, embarrassed, but trying to stifle a laugh} “Yeah, I must have created that one after a long day.”

{Her} “How about this one – Johnny Assplay?”

{Me} “Yeah, sorry about that.  Wasn’t planning on that becoming public.”

{Her} “So is this Turd Fergusonovich a relative of the first Turd?”

{Me} “That’s his Polish cousin.”

Note to self – make NORMAL names when creating accounts in a production environment.