Sunshine resident Matthew Schulz was hit with an unexpected charge for around 18 months of water use.
A state-owned water company has apologised over an IT issue which resulted in some customers being hit with unexpected bills totalling thousands of dollars.
The Victorian government's Greater Western Water (GWW) admitted that a direct debit failure from an IT upgrade bungle meant many residential water bills were left unpaid for months.
Sunshine resident Matthew Schulz was slugged with a delayed bill notice of $2641.20 for around 18 months of water use.
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Schulz told 9News he was "confused" when he saw the huge charge after he tried to remedy the direct debit issue in late 2024.
"I can't afford that, that's not something that I budgeted for," Schulz said.
"I am happy to pay what I owe, but it's just diabolical, it's just a big mess."
At first, Schulz was told he needed to pay the full amount.
But GWW has since worked out a payment plan.
"I have direct debits for all my other bills and they just get paid on time," Schulz added.
An ill-fated $100 million IT upgrade is understood to be the cause of the billing bungle.
GWW acknowledged the billing issue and said it is passing on $130 million in bill relief to customers, along with the facilitation of payment plans.
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GWW Managing Director Cameron Fitzgerald said the company had "missed the mark" and encouraged impacted customers to contact the company over any back-dated bills.
"We know that we've let the community down and we're working really hard with our regulator, the ombudsman, to improve our systems," Fitzgerald told 9News.
"We're about halfway through our catch-up billing approach, which is about bringing people back to their regular billing cycles so they can be confident about their water bill, what they get, and how we move forward.
"We want people to call us, because we know we got this wrong, we know that we need to make this right."
General Manager Customer Experience Terence Alvares told Nine.com.au that most customers are now back on the regular billing cycle.
"We know the billing issues have caused significant frustration for our customers, and we're genuinely sorry for the impact this has had," Alvares said.
"No one is expected to pay a large amount all at once."
The Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria (EWOV) said it has fielded nearly 4000 complaints about GWW between October 2024 and March 2026.
There were 120 complaints regarding back-dated bills for the month of March.
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"Greater Western Water customers have reported a range of billing, customer service and payment difficulty issues to EWOV, including bill shock from retrospective bills," EWOV ombudsman and chief executive Catherine Wolthuizen said.
"In some cases, customers have received bills for significant amounts, and faced difficulty paying these large bills.
"Some customers have come to us disputing the accuracy of backbills and other customers report having never received bills."
According to the Essential Services Commission, water businesses in Victoria have a four-month backbilling limit where a customer has been undercharged for a water bill.
However, the regulator gave GWW the green light to pursue customers over the unpaid bills in 2025.
EWOV said it is continuing to investigate ongoing complaints.
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