Poor customer service

I switched banks, but was stupid to not cancelled my scheduled payments. Now I owe standard bank more and more. I asked the call centre agent to downgrade my cheque account to a savings, so that the bank fees don't accumulate so drastically every month. He told me no I must first pay back the owed amount.

But when I go into the branch they say it's possible. Why is standard bank tipping us off like this???