Have you ever had this happen

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I do online bill pay and often have my payments debited out of my account. I never give the routing numbers, not to anyone. I have done this for years and love the ease and convience of it. Recently, I had my wallet stolen and canceled the card. With the new debit card in hand, I started my monthly chore of sending out my bills. The following day, I found my account in the negative. My cell phone carrier, had taken three payments, totaling over $500.00 out of my acount. The only payment authorized by me was setup for 7/31/08, these payments came out of my account: 7/28/08. They claimed there was nothing they could do, but if I could send a statement showing these payments have been paid, they will send me (snail mail) a refund. When I explained to them that those three payments put the account into a negative balance, which will in turn create even more fees, all they could say is that they were sorry and that there was nothing they could do about it. I tried to report the debit card stolen, so that I could get the charges removed, I was enformed by my bank that they did not use my debit card, they used the routing numbers to my checking account. When I asked how they could do that, I was told that it is very easy for them to get the numbers using a debit card. Here's the deal, I think that their misuse of my card and routing numbers is the same as stealing and Identity theft,(I did not authorize these payments, nor was I notified that they were taken the payments out) Would like to know your opinion. Is this stealing and Identity theft or do they have the right to do this