So I only bought a single US Bank VGC from Kroger (purple, white, gray) about a week ago. Transaction went through fine and when I call in to check the value on the card it's at $500. I also set the PIN myself to something easy to remember.

When I tried to use it to buy a money order at Kroger OR Walmart all registers rejected it with either "Not Authorized" (Kroger) or "Alternate Tender Accepted." I thought maybe I had incorrectly swiped it with a wrong PIN but when I called the customer service for the card, they stated that I had attempted too many times to use the card with a wrong PIN (even though I had SET the PIN myself!).

They reset the "use" of the card so it was "unlocked." I then tried to buy just some bananas at K and WM and BOTH stores showed the same error message again!

Note that I have been buying OVs for a long time and never had issues liquidating them at K or HT...so I know how the process works. I have basically a useless $500 purple VGC here until I figure where I can spend it. Any ideas on what may be wrong?