trouble with multiple values stacked in a cell using Alt+Enter - who needs a challenge?

I don't even know what this function is called, but if you type a value in a cell, then hold down ALT and press enter, you get a new line within the cell. A system I export from (to an XML file then open with Excel) automatically does this. I have 2 problems I am trying to solve that I have with this.

1. In using a V-Lookup to return the values in this cell, the results place everything on one line with a crazy little box symbol in between (I'm assuming its the symbol for "Alt+Enter") I need it to be stacked like the original. See tab "Problem #1" on my attachment. Column B is what the original data looks like that I am using for my VLookup, but column A is the way it returns (after copy/paste special of coursse) and I need it to result like column B. If you click in a cell in column A and press F2 then enter, it fixes it. My problem is I have several thousands of lines of data like this so it isn't an option. I've tried macros and can't get it to work.

2. See 2nd tab named problem #2. Again, I have several thousand of lines of data like this. I need to convert the example data in column A to the example in column B. Basically, I want to delete all but the 1st value, and the cell may contain 1, 2, 3, or 4 vaules all stacked with the Alt+Enter function.