Who in the right mind would think that the act of setting a PIN after purchasing the VGC would trigger a fraud alert on first use. This is just preposterous.
This is what I've been doing with Staples V/MCGCs all the time. Buy, register, change PIN on every single card. Made things much easier liquidating knowing that the PIN is always the same. Never had any issues with this approach. In fact this approach was recommended as a way to protect myself from scammers.
That being said, after calling the CSR for the Vanilla InComm I obtained from CVS, they did see the fraud alert and they lifted it. I went back to the WM that had a working MO machine, and this time it worked without a hitch. Whew!
The CSR told me the same thing as folks here, that I should just use the card instead of attempting to set a PIN.
Now I gotta worry about the May 1 issue. This thing just never ends.