A Vanilla Reload change at my CVS

I love paying my rent with the Bluebird mail-a-check option so whenever I am at shopping at CVS I toss a Vanilla Reload into my basket to accompany my other purchases.  I have never had an issue paying with a credit card until today when an “Alternate Tender Required” message popped up on the screen.  I have read that several stores do not allow the purchase of Vanilla Reloads via credit card which I understand but this was particularly interesting to me because it appeared to be purely a system change as opposed to a policy change that was communicated to its employees.

From the best I can tell, no variables had changed between today and 5 days ago when I made the exact same purchase using the exact same card from the exact same employee at the exact same register.

I didn’t have 500 dollars cash on me so I asked the employee to remove the Vanilla Reload from my purchase.  This action required a supervisor to come over.  The employee proceeded to ask the supervisor what the system message meant though neither was familiar.

Has anyone else experienced this “system change” recently at their local CVS?