Wireless Prepaid to Postpaid migration

ATTHelp, you keep posting the wrong information. First, you provided a link to transfer a number to ATT from another carrier, which is not the issue here, then you provided a link to port a number to ATT prepaid when the issue here was porting two EXISTING ATT prepaid numbers into a single ATT post-paid account. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Ugh this is so frustrating.

@beaverhausen2020 You can not port a number from prepaid to postpaid. Moving a number from prepaid to postpaid can only be done in store, preferably a corporate store.

@beaverhausen2020

Porting is the process of moving a number to a different service provider. 

You are doing an internal migration, which is done on a corporate store.  Bew sim cards are provided. 

@sandblaster Yes you can move a prepaid number to postpaid, you just can't do it if the area codes are from different markets. Going to the corporate store does not help, as has already been expressed we've all been to the corporate stores.

@beaverhausen2020

See my comments on cross market.

You can port out, and then port back in again. But you are correct you cannot do a cross Market migration. 

It's dopey.

But it's the way it is.  Easiest way to do it without having to deal with phones that don't work his to go to Cricket for a month and then Port back to AT&T postpaid if that's what you really want..

I've had the same problem, and I'm extremely frustrated with AT&T's (Edited per community guidelines) runaround. AT&T keeps saying "it has to be done in a corporate store." FFS, did you not read the OP??? The guy tried THREE DIFFERENT TIMES, and was told it couldn't be done. 

AT&T's we(Edited per community guidelines)ite clearly states that it CAN, and makes no mention that it must be a corporate location: https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1051472/

My experience has been so infuriating that I'm also ready to drop AT&T and go with another carrier. Based on the provided definitions, "line" = number, "plan" = how you're billed. So ultimately, the difference between "prepaid" and "postpaid" is how you're billed, and postpaid provides finance options for upgrades. So I KNOW this isn't as hard as AT&T is making it. Keeping the same number and switching from prepaid to postpaid should be just a matter of making a change on the customer's account. 

This has been my experience over the past two weeks: 
Day 1: Went to an AT&T store and asked about switching from prepaid to postpaid. I was told they can't do it in-store, and that I would need to call 611. That evening, I call 611 and after spending 30 minutes going through unhelpful automated options, I finally get through to technical support. I'm told to call a different number: 1-866-895-1099. So I call that number and another 30 minutes of going in circles with automated options. Eventually, the machine transfers me back to the automated menu from the 611 number! Hung up, called back and this time got in touch with technical support again. This time, I'm told that only corporate locations can make the switch, so I look up where my local corporate is. I call the corporate location and the girl tells me that they no longer deal with prepaid accounts, period. (Edited per community guidelines)?!

Day 2: I call technical support again, and this time I've given yet a different number to call - 1-877-438-0041. I had to call this number several times repeatedly before I ever got transferred to a real person because the automated thingy is so broken. At one point, it just hung up on me. Once again, I'm told that only a corporate store can make the switch. I tell the guy that I had already spoke to my CS and told him they said they don't deal with prepaid. He says he doesn't know why they said that. 

So I call back to the corporate store again. This time, the rep tells me that AT&T has issued a trial model in ONLY the gulf states where they no longer allow stores to switch accounts from prepaid to postpaid!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Furthermore, the rep tells me that eventually, AT&T plans to phase out prepaid altogether. 

My god, what a unscrupulous, dishonest, misleading, joke of an effing company. So when were you going to tell us this, AT&T? When were you going to tell us that you plan on dropping prepaid altogether and thus forcing all of us to get new numbers with contract accounts?! This utterly unacceptable customer service, and frankly it has been this way as long as I've been with AT&T. 

So now, because of AT&T's "policies," I've now got to fork out $500+ on a new phone and stay on prepaid, just so I can keep my (Edited per community guidelines)ed number. I use my cell for business, and I have customers nationwide. The number is on my business cards, my we(Edited per community guidelines)ite, social media, etc. Because of AT&T's bull sh*t, I will have to contact all of my customers nationwide, friends, family, etc and tell them my number will be changing. 

For that alone, AT&T should provide a new phone at no charge. After all, it's because of YOU that we're having to do this at all -- you're the ones that shut down the 3G & 4G networks, rendering our existing phones useless. YOU should be the ones bending over backwards to ensure your customers stay with you. But instead, we're all given the supreme runaround, to the point that we're prepared to switch carriers. Does this sound like good business practice to you? 

they arent stopping prepaid at all whoever told you this needs to be retrained, the 3g shutdown effects both prepaid and postpaid, also whoever told you that you need a new number should be fired (typical tactic by authorized retailers) you can buy a cheap prepaid phone (39.00) and slap your sim into it and your good until you find a good phone you like 

If you don't mind, what is the address of the store you tried to deal with?

I think we either have an employee who doesn't want to deal with the hassle, or a store whose manager doesn't want to train the employees properly to do the work.

AT&T isn't about to shutter Prepaid.  They're not doing a trial in the gulf states to remove the only way something can be done.

hey,  If the area codes are from different markets,you can't move a prepaid number to postpaid.It doesn't help to go to the corporate store, as has already been stated, we have all been to corporate stores.

While it is true that you cannot move a number from an area code in a Corporate Store that it does not service, none of that was mentioned in the recent post.