diff --git a/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/hellbender/tools/genomicsdb/GenomicsDBImport.java b/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/hellbender/tools/genomicsdb/GenomicsDBImport.java
index f2e5938301a..f68309565cf 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/hellbender/tools/genomicsdb/GenomicsDBImport.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/hellbender/tools/genomicsdb/GenomicsDBImport.java
@@ -514,7 +514,8 @@ private static void assertIntervalsCoverEntireContigs(GenomicsDBImporter importe
     private static void assertVariantFileIsCompressedAndIndexed(final Path path) {
         if (!path.toString().toLowerCase().endsWith(FileExtensions.COMPRESSED_VCF)) {
             throw new UserException("Input variant files must be block compressed vcfs when using " +
-                BYPASS_FEATURE_READER + ", but " + path.toString() + " does not appear to be");
+                BYPASS_FEATURE_READER + ", but " + path.toString() + " does not end with " +
+                    "the standard file extension " + FileExtensions.COMPRESSED_VCF);
         }
         Path indexPath = path.resolveSibling(path.getFileName() + FileExtensions.COMPRESSED_VCF_INDEX);
         IOUtils.assertFileIsReadable(indexPath);