It it actually possible to get help?

[Septicemia]

Intuit has the most aggravating IVR I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with.  They make it virtually impossible to get to a live person without wasting tons of time with a computer that cannot correctly understand anything I say.  Then, when somehow I actually get to a live person, it takes them a freaking hour to provide me a download link for software I've already purchased!  Two hours wasted yesterday just to get a download link.  Today I need help because the software I downloaded yesterday isn't aware of a purchase I made back in March.  It's trying to sell me something I've already purchased and it won't let me do _anything_ until I make another purchase.  I've wasted 90minutes so far today and I'm once again waiting for a callback.  This isn't help.  This isn't customer service.  This is Intuit deliberately making the process to get support so onerous that people will give up.  So, with all that in mind, what is the fastest way to reach someone who can actually provide help?

[tagteam]

Post your question (as detailed as possible) here on this board.

Otherwise, Support is the only alternative.

[Septicemia]

Sure, here goes:

I'm using TurboTax Premier 2022 on Windows 10.  Windows is up to date.  I'm using Kaspersky Antivirus and Malwarebytes.  I'm using Chrome and it's up to date.

I have income in two states.  I get one state free with my purchase of TurboTax.  I purchased my second state back in March.  My return was created on a different computer that no longer works.  Both the dead PC and the one I'm currently using have the same TurboTax license key (I get up to 5 computers with the version I purchased). 

I'm trying to open the (unfiled) return that I created back in March. 

When I try to open my saved return.  TurboTax says "Your federal return is now on this computer.  Let's get your [state] forms next."  This is followed by Error 190. 

I was able to download state #1 without incident.  However, when I try to download state #2 (the one I purchased back in March) TurboTax prompts me to purchase it again.  If I cancel out of the purchase menu,TurboTax takes me back to the startup screen and does not open my return. This behavior is the same regardless of whether I sign in to TurboTax.

The behavior suggests that I won't be able to view my return without purchasing state #2, which is an issue because I already purchased state #2 and I don't want to purchase it again.

I genuinely would be grateful for any help.

[Septicemia · Accepted solution]

Since I crowed about this so much I thought I'd post an update now that I have one.

I was first told that this was due to a nationwide outage and that once it was fixed I wouldn't have any problems.

Today I'm told that the 5-computer license is _either_ Mac or PC, as in you can install it on up to 5 Macs or up to 5 PCs but not a mix of both.  To the support people that told me that, I shared two links:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/product-delivery/install-turbotax-one-co...

https://turbotax.intuit.com/corp/license/desktop.jsp

The first is a KB article that clearly states you can install it on 5 computers (no restrictions on operating system).  The second is the TurboTax EULA which, in section B.1 again states five computers with no restrictions on operating system.

So according to the support people it's one or the other, but their contract says both.  If you're unlikely enough to find yourself in the same predicament as I did, I would encourage you to be insistent that you expect Intuit to honor their EULA and unless they can tell you where the EULA limits your choice of operating system then the terms of the contract require them to provide both.

Or maybe just buy the same thing from them twice.  I made a stand on principle and was ultimately successful in getting a satisfactory resolution, but it probably was not worth the four hours that it took to achieve.  Your mileage may vary.