Front for Organized Crime

Ok, let me spell this out for you as simply as I possibly can:

I tried, repeatedly for an entire day, to find someone at AT&T who would change my account to a prepaid plan ...

 insisted that I had to go to an AT&T store to change my plan

You sure wasted your time. The answer is right there in your post. Changing from postpaid to prepaid can only be done in store. Too bad you didn’t believe them when you got the right answer.

This is hilarious. 🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱

Gosh, golly, gee, I'm SO glad you enjoyed it. But, as an AT&T employee you know that what I said is true. That is, of course, unless you're some kind of AT&T troll hired to make fun of posts that might otherwise be detrimental their enormous corporate profits. I do so much like the fact that, much like Facebook, AT&T edits or removes posts that are somewhat less than complimentary to their insatiable corporate greed.

And if you think having Covid-19 is hilarious then maybe YOU should give it a try; trust me, it's not as much fun as you seem to think it is. 

Front for organized crime? Sounds like someone has watched too many crimes shows or movies from prohibition.

Yes, they use a lot of outsourcing. Pandemic has caused a lot of short staffing. Too many people are not strongly looking for work and many that do aren't wanting to work in a call center dealing with people who are upset or crazy and just take it out on the person over the phone (which is true of many companies, nature of the beast for call centers unfortunately).

However, not finding your account is definitely an issue. If over the phone is not resolving, then that leaves you with a couple options. You can wait until you are well to go into a store. Or you could try a BBB complaint as that goes to the corporate level and can result in contact back.

I'm pretty certain @Constructive wasn't finding Covid-19 funny at all. It was only your rather out-there claim that AT&T is a front for organized crime. We agree a lot of improvements are needed but let us at least leave the tin-foil hat theories alone and keep it in perspective. Certainly, hope you recover soon.

You also sound like another AT&T flunkie. My claims aren't "tin hat" theories; were YOU present for the several hundred calls (oh, sorry, figuratively speaking again, I sincerely hope that didn't confuse you)  I've had to make to these crooks regarding their pregnant, over inflated bills? 4 calls in one month that came out to be a bill over $65.00; for those of you who are obviously incapable of doing simple math that comes out to $16.25/call and ALL of those calls were to AT&T trying to find out why my bill is so (Edited per community guidelines) high! "Tin Hat Theories"? Hardly anyone there can speak understandable English; if you truly believe that corporate monstrosities like AT&T go overseas because of Covid-19 then you're even more gullible than you initially sounded. They go overseas to 3rd world companies because paying Americans for these jobs would chip away at their enormous corporate profits too much; plus, if all of their "customer service" (such as it isn't) employees spoke good solid, understandable English they wouldn't have as many excuses for all of the mistakes that they constantly make. I was with Sprint for over a decade and when they started padding my bill with overseas calls to places that I've never been and don't know anyone, places like Trinidad, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Brazil I called and complained and they at least had the decency to admit their billing computers were having problems and consequently removed the calls from my bill and even gave me a discount for my trouble. (A)ll (T)errible (T)elephone service pads the bill and then looks for any way possible to justify their thievery! None of this even begins to address the fact that one of largest phone companies on the planet can't allow me to even make a call to THEM without their crappy service dropping the call! "AT&T may slow down the network if it's too busy to handle more than 20 calls a days." How many times have YOU had to call these thieves and during the 45 minute plus time that you're on hold have heard that ridiculous recording? 

Bottom line, I sincerely hope that AT&T is paying you well for having your lips so firmly anchored to their posterior.

You are really fixated on this "organized crime" theory.

https://forums.att.com/conversations/wireless-billing/honest-phone-companies/61edddd12c844f7ca99303d0

Side note:  I don't think "organized crime" syndicates sell stock but I could be wrong.

ETA:  Is there any reason you can't purchase or change a PREPAID ACCOUNT online? 

I'm not sure what your issue is, though.  First you say "getting a prepaid account" then you say "change my account" then you indicated you had a billing issue.

If you HAVE a PREpaid account and have issues with a PREpaid account, this thread should be moved to the PREpaid forum.

Okay I don't see any point in making fun of the original poster. However...

@ROC9876   if you are not independent enough to get online and order a SIM card choose a plan and purchase a phone, activate the SIM card and pay for service all on your own when you get it, then you have no business using prepaid service and you should sign up for postpaid at an AT&T store.   

Prepaid customers should know how to log into their account all on their own. They should know how to change their plan all on their own.

It's self service. 

Prepaid is made for people who do not need hand-holding and who can manage their service all on their own without the help of customer support..   That's why it's cheap.

There's also a lot of very confusing language in your first post, which kind of confirms you either don't know what you're doing or don't know what you're asking customer support to do for you. Which again means you are not independent enough to be using prepaid self-service.  

If you need a "prepaid/cheap" carrier that's going to hold your hand a whole lot, switch to Consumer Cellular. They will answer the phone, they will speak English, and they will accommodate your inability to do this on your own.  ( Consumer Cellular runs on AT&T and T-Mobile. A locked AT&T phone will work on consumer cellular with an AT&T SIM card) 

And, as mentioned, prepaid does not have a bill. Prepaid will give you a refill notice every 30 days. But no bill.   If you are getting a bill or a bill notice, you did not sign up for prepaid service.  Prepaid takes money up front for phone, sim, and service plan.  And is self-managed through the pay go online website. 

Ok, let me spell this out for you as simply as I possibly can:

I tried, repeatedly for an entire day, to find someone at AT&T who would change my account to a prepaid plan (are you with me still? I'll try to use the smallest words possible so as not to confuse you; are words of 3 syllables too big?) and every mealy mouthed foreigner I got on the phone either hung up 30 seconds into the conversation or insisted that I had to go to an AT&T store to change my plan (still there, have I gone too fast, am I using words that are too big?). Ok, next part: then I finally got hold of someone in this country who spoke the English language just fine and gave me a telephone number to call to change my plan (haven't gone over your head yet have I?). But, when I called this number and was asked to enter my phone number (already making me wonder, "Gee, this is the company I'm paying all this money to for phone service and their poorly designed software can't tell what number I'm calling from?) which I did, 3 times. (Now, you may have to put your thinking cap on for this part because it could potentially get confusing). The 1st 2 times I entered my number their poorly designed computer software (I think they may still be using Atari 800s to run their company...except for the billing department, they use an abacus) came back with, "We're sorry we can't find an account for that number, please try again." Are you lost or confused yet? The 3rd time I entered my phone number their crappy software came back with, "We're sorry, we can't find an account for that number, goodbye." and disconnected the call. Hopefully, you were able to follow it this time because I can't think of any way to explain this using 1 syllable words of 3 letters or less.

Condescending much?  That being said, let me help you out and put on my Editor Hat:

I tried, repeatedly for an entire day, to find someone at AT&T who would change my account to a prepaid plan and everyone I spoke to on the phone either hung up 30 seconds into the conversation or insisted that I had to go to an AT&T store.

I finally spoke to someone who gave me a telephone number to call to change my plan but, when I called this number and was asked to enter my phone number which I did, 3 times.

The 1st 2 times I entered my number their poorly designed computer software (I think they may still be using Atari 800s to run their company...except for the billing department, they use an abacus) came back with, "We're sorry we can't find an account for that number, please try again.

*Please note the use of paragraphs and the elimination of the overuse of the condescending tone.