Old phone finally died, bought new 3rd party unlocked phone

Hello warp

Technically, yes. However, you'd be liable for any damage that may occur to your SIM card or your handset. Considering the slight thickness difference, it's more advisable that you visit an AT&T to get a proper size sim.

If I buy a new SIM card, and ask for the phone number to be transferred to new SIM, will that change the GoPhone account or cause me to lose my balance or any other potential account "gotchas"?

As for thickness difference, didn't realize that.  Can't be too much, a little sanding and then whittling away the edges, not too scary.  Hand processing something to close tolerances doesn't intimidate or phase me.

But if I did this and something didn't work, I could still take my unlocked phone to the store, prove identity (driver's license, credit cards, etc), and get GoPhone account switched to use a new SIM, right?

By the way, there is no different about the thickness of Mini Sim and Micro Sim,only size are different.
Unless you are playing around with Nano Sim for Apple IPad and Iphone,Nano Sim is a little thinner,but some sand paper will do the job.

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@adidaskid808 wrote:

Samsung N9005 is a Note 3 .It is using a MIcro SIM.
You go to any Corp.store of AT&T, they will switch it over for you in less than 2 mins.for free.
You will keep your number and credit in your Gophone account.

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Thanks. Old SIM was originally bought in an AT&T store, not a corp, with a new phone and a contact. Original phone died, but have been using replacement of same model that I unlocked. Then I switched from contract to GoPhone. That one died just recently, figured good time to upgrade.

The AT&T and GoPhone websites didn't offer the phone I wanted without a contract, so I ordered a 3rd party unlocked phone.

As a GoPhone customer, I feel like a second-class citizen, a burden, an unwanted and undesired customer, because every time I search the GoPhone site for help, it sends me to the AT&T website, which says login and we'll help you. Upon login, the page immediately redirects back to the GoPhone site, which is basically just a payment management portal, nothing else.

Same thing happens if I call for support, I am sent to the customer voice menu system which only handles payment and balance queries. So I've been conditioned to not expect any different treatment in a store.

Anyways, I'll give that a try, and post back results, thank you.

[EDIT] (also corrected many small typos)

P.S. Not sure exactly how this forum works in this regard, but I find it very odd and somewhat offensive that OTHER people tell me that my problem is solved.  To me, only the original poster should be able to judge whether the problem was solved.  Otherwise, the answers marked as "solved" have very little credibility, indeed.

If a person who offers an answer can also mark it as problem solved, that's a bit much tooting their own horn, no?  Do they have a crystal ball, can they see into the future, did their answer address all the concerns in the original question (and subsequent comments leading up to answer), do they specifically know the people in the local store and how they handle a scenario such as mine?  Even if they answered the question and were in fact the worker in the store who helped me, it seems inappropriate that they mark the problem as solved.  That deteremination belongs solely to the original poster, and nobody else.

For example, the currently marked solution does not mention cost of buying a new SIM, all it says is they'll change it over for free, which assumes I walk in with 2 SIM cards (old and a new), or else have them convince/bully me into buying a new SIM, or my hand slips when trimming my old card such that I have no choice but to buy a new SIM, or they may see my unlocked phone and refuse to touch anything without a receipt or online invoice proving it was bought from AT&T and has a contract.  Many of the stores out here are unfriendly like that.

As soon as I get the chance to get to the store, I will go and see what they say, and come back with closing comments.

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@warp9pnt9 wrote:

If I buy a new SIM card, and ask for the phone number to be transferred to new SIM, will that change the GoPhone account or cause me to lose my balance or any other potential account "gotchas"?

 

As for thickness difference, didn't realize that.  Can't be too much, a little sanding and then whittling away the edges, not too scary.  Hand processing something to close tolerances doesn't intimidate or phase me.

 

But if I did this and something didn't work, I could still take my unlocked phone to the store, prove identity (driver's license, credit cards, etc), and get GoPhone account switched to use a new SIM, right?

 

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These questions may have already been answered to some extent, but I would like to further elaborate on them to clear up any confusion you may have. 

In response to your first question, everything should transition smoothly during a SIM swap. You should have the same account type, number, rate plan, balance, phone number, and other account information.

Usually I would recommend purchasing a microSIM cutter when switching from a larger traditional SIM to a microSIM, but it is clear that you are very confident in regards to trimming the SIM yourself. More power to you, and much respect - I thought about trimming my own SIM myself but felt like I would screw something up, so I bit the bullet and purchased a microSIM cutter off of eBay. Worked very well for me, which is exactly what I was looking for. 

In the event that something went wrong during the SIM transfer, yes, you should be able to get a new SIM, usually free of charge. 

Hope this helps! 

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warp9pnt9 wrote: 

As a GoPhone customer, I feel like a second-class citizen, a burden, an unwanted and undesired customer, because every time I search the GoPhone site for help, it sends me to the AT&T website, which says login and we'll help you. Upon login, the page immediately redirects back to the GoPhone site, which is basically just a payment management portal, nothing else.

 

Same thing happens if I call for support, I am sent to the customer voice menu system which only handles payment and balance queries. So I've been conditioned to not expect any different treatment in a store.

 

Anyways, I'll give that a try, and post back results, thank you.

 

[EDIT] (also corrected many small typos)

 

P.S. Not sure exactly how this forum works in this regard, but I find it very odd and somewhat offensive that OTHER people tell me that my problem is solved.  To me, only the original poster should be able to judge whether the problem was solved.  Otherwise, the answers marked as "solved" have very little credibility, indeed.

 

If a person who offers an answer can also mark it as problem solved, that's a bit much tooting their own horn, no?  Do they have a crystal ball, can they see into the future, did their answer address all the concerns in the original question (and subsequent comments leading up to answer), do they specifically know the people in the local store and how they handle a scenario such as mine?  Even if they answered the question and were in fact the worker in the store who helped me, it seems inappropriate that they mark the problem as solved.  That deteremination belongs solely to the original poster, and nobody else.

 

For example, the currently marked solution does not mention cost of buying a new SIM, all it says is they'll change it over for free, which assumes I walk in with 2 SIM cards (old and a new), or else have them convince/bully me into buying a new SIM, or my hand slips when trimming my old card such that I have no choice but to buy a new SIM, or they may see my unlocked phone and refuse to touch anything without a receipt or online invoice proving it was bought from AT&T and has a contract.  Many of the stores out here are unfriendly like that.

 

As soon as I get the chance to get to the store, I will go and see what they say, and come back with closing comments.

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You are not the first (and certainly not the last) GoPhone customer to feel frustrated or uncared for. You're right, it seems that AT&T does not seem to genuinely care about the "little guy", e.g. GoPhone customers, probably since they represent a small minority of their incoming revenue. I've been in your shoes before when I needed serious support and it seemed like all I was going was going in circles, back and forth, back and forth. Thank God for this Forum and all the helpful participants who volunteer their time to come here with helpful information. Otherwise, I never would have known how to reach someone who could help me. 

In response to your edit, I see that you first registered back in 2007. Things have changed significantly around here since that time; the person having the ability to mark a post as an accepted solution being one of those changes. I believe that only a year or so ago, the moderators granted users the option to mark a post as an accepted solution. For years, only the OP had this privilege. I believe they did this in order to make helpful information more easily available to people in need if the OP failed to return and click "accept as solution."

As for "tooting one's own horn", I can't help but feel a little vain if I mark my own post as the solution to a thread...even if it is the solution in its own right. 

Thank you to everyone who replied. Sorry if I over reacted or was out of line before. I am just not accustomed to having others post and immediately mark as accepted solution, especially when the answer is full of grammatical errors.

I'd like to comment a moment on the in-store experience. I walked in, and immediately someone helped me. It did not matter to them that I was a GoPhone customer, they helped me. They transferred all the SIM card addresses for free to a new free Micro SIM, set up the new Micro SIM, and took the time to explain a few Android basics to me, as this was my first Android device ever. In about 15 minutes, I was on my way again. Spectacular in-store service, efficient, patient, thorough, competent, friendly, helpful, not biased or prejudiced because of GoPhone status.

In the 7+ years I have been with AT&T, more than half that time was as a monthly billed customer, under the same terms even after the 2-year contract expired. I bought my original phone outright, because they did not offer any contract with it, yet they still locked me into a 2-year service contract. But back then, it was Cingular. The website had way more advanced features back then, like PUK/PUK2 unlocking in real-time chat.

When it switched to AT&T, customer service went downhill a bit. After it had been AT&T for a while, when I switched to GoPhone, they kept trying for several months to bill me, and kept giving me the runaround on phone support, until I demanded to speak to a manager, and then demanded to speak to that person's manager after a few first level managers failed to help, and refused to hang up until the refund was finally settled properly, and bills ended.

All of this, because as soon as I switched to GoPhone, nobody even wanted to talk to me, and every time I called with a problem, as soon as I said GoPhone or they read GoPhone, or the automated answer service encountered a GoPhone account flag, I was immediately sent to the GoPhone self-service menu.

After years of service like that, I became very jaded and angry at that sort of treatment, came to expect being treated like a leper in the Middle Ages. The phone treatment has gotten a lot better (put it to the test with a little billing issue a few weeks back), the in-store service has always been excellent, the web site has gone downhill somewhat, but at least there's some help to be had on these forums. I am grateful for that much, at least.

P.S. I was prepared to manually trim the card, but am slightly relieved and disappointed at not having had to. When I was a kid, I had these paper air planes in a kit, about 20 of them, each had to be cut by hand with a hobby knife or scissors, and carefully glued together dozens of small pieces, carefully calibrate, balance and adjust afterwards. After that, trimming a card would have been easy. I'd probably have practiced on a few dummies from old CC or membership cards before the real thing. Never knew there was a trimmer available, thank you for the tip. Might have made a few dummies from that for comparison. I find such tasks to be oddly calming. Anyways, no need for now, and glad I have my old SIM intact, if i ever need to activate a number on an older style phone.

Edit: Formatting, added paragraphs (which got removed?).