Longtime lurker, first-time poster. I'm hoping for a bit of advice, or even a take on whether I'm in the wrong or not.
I performed a shop at a local brewery for ACL where I basically just had to visit the retail store within the brewery, get help from an employee, and then make a small purchase. I performed this same exact shop in Feb, and it was pretty straightforward. The first time I performed this shop, I sent an email to the generic ACL support email asking for clarification on whether gift cards were an acceptable purchase or not. No one responded, so I went ahead with the shop, bought the gift card, filled out the report, and the shop was accepted.
Last week, I performed the same exact shop, and it was rejected because apparently a gift card is not an acceptable purchase. I responded back saying that I asked about this in the past, no one replied, and my previous shop was accepted. She says that guidelines change all the time and maybe it was acceptable in the past, but not anymore. I look up the guidelines for that shop, and the last time they were revised were Oct 2021. I performed these shops in Feb 2022 and Jul 2022. In theory, nothing should have changed. Again, she responds saying that ACL can't be expected to email all shoppers to let them know when exceptions to shops change.
I understand where ACL is coming from, since a gift card might not technically be a retail purchase, but I feel like I did my due diligence in this case and asked beforehand. But, oh well. Luckily, I can afford to be out $20, and it's not a big deal. It's just frustrating because of the principle of it all. End rant.