Welcome to Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, two of the most deeply-rooted and oldest Roman Catholic churches in the United States. Our Lady of Grace, founded in 1851, and St. Joseph, founded in 1871, were merged into one parish in 2008. We would like to extend a warm greeting to you and encourage you to explore the ministries and activities that occur in our parish.
We are a large community that is here to help fulfill your spiritual needs as well as help you find some peace in the busy Hoboken and Jersey City areas. We are here to help support you locally as you live the Catholic faith in a global society, and we welcome you to share your talents and interests with us. Each day we strive to create a spirit-filled and service-oriented parish that is a beacon of faith, hope, and love not only within our community but in our society as well.
Please feel free to visit us at any time, join us at one of our Masses, or attend one of our events. Welcome to our parish, and we look forward to growing in faith with you!
It's that time of the year to register for CCD. If you are planning on registering please reach out to Samuel Seckler via cell: (661)-312-8695 or email:
If you are interested in teaching or substituting for CCD this year please reach out to Samuel Seckler via cell: (661)-312-8695 or email:
Bamboozled: Verizon slaps church with $1,500 early termination fee
Sometimes, consumers are charged fees they believe are wholly unfair. Sometimes, the charges really are unfair, or a surprise, or a plain old money grab.
But there are times when, fair or not, consumers agree to the fee — thanks to the fine print or the not-so-fine print — and the disclosure was there all along. This is a case of “buyer beware.” Say hello again to the Rev. Alex Santora, the head of The Church of Our Lady of Grace in Hoboken. Bamboozled readers met him a year ago when FedEx charged a surprise inflated fee to ship donated goods from the church. Collections demands followed. Bamboozled helped to get it all straightened out.
“We are nonprofit and have to watch expenses,” Santora said. “I refuse to give in to extortion.” Indeed, Santora takes protecting the church’s finances very, very seriously.
So when the church was faced with a $1,519.72 early termination fee from Verizon — all while he was trying to save the church money — he asked for help. “I am reaching out because of a Verizon line ripoff,” he said.
The church upgraded its phone system years ago, the Jersey City native and longtime faith columnist for The Jersey Journal and NJ.com said. But back then, he said, the phone lines for the fire alarms and elevators still needed the old copper Verizon lines.
The church has eight of those lines, a primary and a back-up for each. “For years, we paid about $250 a month for these lines. One year ago, they raised the price to nearly $500 a month,” he said. “We were looking for a way to change these lines.”
The church’s alarm company told Santora about a new technology, allowed by the fire code, for a cell phone to be installed on the system. It would cost $305 for installation and a $250 annual fee on each line. A considerable savings, Santora noted. The church was in. The new cell lines were installed. And they called Verizon to cancel the other lines.
“They said we had a two-year contract which they extended automatically without my permission. We were never asked,” he said. “In order to cancel each line, we have to pay nearly $400 per line.” “This is highway robbery,” Santora said.
HELP AHEAD?
Santora shared several emails and what Verizon said in subsequent phone calls. He also called his state senator’s office, and he was thinking of filing a complaint with the Board of Public Utilities. We asked Verizon to take a look, and then we dove a little deeper into early termination fees and the law. There wasn’t much that would help the church.
In 2023, the Federal Communications Commission considered a new rule that would ban early termination fees for cable and satellite television services. But that rule hasn’t been finalized yet, and it wouldn’t cover phone service anyway.
Generally under federal law, fees like this are permitted unless the fees are not properly disclosed. Companies also may not use deceptive practices, make cancellation unreasonably difficult or charge fees that are contrary to the contract terms. That doesn’t appear to be the case here. The bills show an itemized list of charges, including line items noted as “24 Month Term Rate Plan” fees.
In the messages section of the bill, it says: “Some of the services include special pricing based on a 2-year Term Plan that will automatically renew for another 2-year commitment period…”
New Jersey law allows for autorenewals, but service providers must notify the customer ahead of time. We double-checked with the state Legislature, and there are no bills pending that would prohibit early termination fees. (Hey there in Trenton, are you reading this column?)
Santora received a call from Verizon, and the news wasn’t good. The representative said yes indeed, the contract renewed in December 2025, and the two-year contract lasts until December 2027. And yes, the early termination fee would stand.
Verizon only told us its team reached out to Santora, but it couldn’t discuss the details because of customer privacy issues. We went over this with Santora, who agreed there was a notice on the bill about the two-year term.
“For 20 years, we generally paid the same amount so there was no knowledge about the cancellation (fee),” he said. And that brings up a really important point. The church paid its Verizon bills using autopay. Autopay is terrific so you won’t be late on your bills. But many consumers don’t read the actual monthly bills as long as the amount withdrawn from their bank account is correct. (We’ve been guilty of this, for certain.)
Consumers should also remember to mark dates on the calendar to remember when a service renewal is coming. Same goes for expiring credits or discounts, just as we regularly do with our cable bill. Being proactive is the only way to avoid getting slapped with a surprise bill, or like what happened here, getting sucked into a contract renewal without your explicit permission.
Perhaps as we all learn from Santora’s experience, lawmakers may take note. Perhaps it’s time for lawmakers to consider whether these kinds of early termination fees are fair or reasonable. Or whether contracts like this, instead of being renewed automatically, should require the consumer to actively opt in for a renewal. Santora, though, said he’s not giving up. “Paying an exorbitant fee to cancel a phone line is predatory and deceptive,” he claimed, adding that Verizon is trying to “extract blood money from a non-profit.”
He said he’s going to let his 1,300 parishioners know about the charge. “Perhaps they will think twice about using them as their carrier,” Santora said. “I already cancelled my own Verizon cell phone. Hope more will, too.”