1095-A Policy Number Clarification / TurboTax

Felt like opening this up to anyone that may know or be in a similar situation, I could not find any info online about it.

My returns were rejected due to TurboTax not having up to date questions for form 1095-A until today (2/20/19).

I went online and started a live chat to make sure it all went through smooth.

Unfortunately there was a lot of confusion about my policy number, Originally I had a Certified Tax agent do a video chat with me to add the 1095-A (on the 12th) as I was not prompted to. (had to set a time a couple days out at 6am :|)

My Policy number was 16 characters a colon (:) and 9 more characters. I do not remember how the Certified agent had me enter it originally. At first they said use the numbers before the colon (but there were 16) Then they had me call Covered California to confirm my number and I did.

After being told to enter a few different ways, and going back and forth the live chat rep, he asked a supervisor who said to use the last 15 characters but to remove the colon.

I hope this is correct, starting to wonder why I’m paying extra for the extra help when they really aren’t helpful. I’m pretty sure the Certified agent (who I had to make an appointment with through turbotax) had me enter it differently. *rolls eyes*

Last year the Max Audit defense guys were more of a hindrance than anything when I had to send a missing form, I contacted them, had to wait about a week and then was still told it would be best to handle it myself… I did. So what did I pay extra for? Very misleading and led to an extra 2 week delay that I would not have had If I had done it myself without them altogether.

Sorry, a bit frustrated, this should not be so complicated, 7th year on turbotax, paid extra for peace of mind (max benefits, live cpa’s, etc) last 2 years and I regret it.

Not saying the services are all bad, for some they may come in handy but for me (low income, self employed, single father) it was kinda pointless.

Anyone else ever run into this? I’ll post back if they get accepted or rejected after that advice.