Nextel Communications - charging thousands of dollars of unauthorized charges from checking account

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on August 13, 2002:

From:

RE: Nextel Communications - charging thousands of dollars of unauthorized charges from checking account

Sunday night we opened our checking account statement to discover that Nextel Communications, a company with whom we had never done business, had allowed over $10,000 worth of merchandise to be paid out of our account.

Each transaction was for an amount in the thousands of dollars, significant enough to require identification, but the thieves don’t have our identification (we do), which means, I assume, that Nextel didn’t require it. Of course I called my bank and Nextel right away. The bank has behaved appropriately, but Nextel told us they "couldn’t do anything" about the problem. They flat out didn't care that one of their customers is giving them our checking account number to purchase thousands of dollars in services and/or equipment.

They refused to tell us whether the transactions occurred over the Internet or in a retail outlet, and refused to take information regarding the theft, even though one of the thefts had taken place the previous day. Nextel is negligent, both in its investigations (or lack of) of their clients’ thefts from non-customers, but especially in their lax handling of credit checks.

In short, Nextel is behaving like a disreputable pawn shop broker, or a fence--they are on notice that they are participating in theft, and they are attempting to turn a blind eye. We want our money back immediately, and we want them never to take a single nickel from anybody in our name. Michelle Brockway

Houston, Texas