Victorian man slugged $2640 for water bill in direct debit bungle

Sunshine resident Matthew Schulz was faced with a deferred bill for $2,641.20 for approximately 18 months of water use.

Schulz told 9News he was “confused” when he saw the huge charge after he tried to resolve the direct debit issue in late 2024.

“I can’t afford that, that’s not something I budgeted for,” Schulz said.

“I’m happy to pay what I owe, but it’s just diabolical, it’s just a big mess.”

Initially, Schulz was told he had to pay the full amount.

But GWW has now 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 believed to be the cause of the billing problem.

GWW acknowledged the billing issue and said it is passing on $130 million in bill relief to customers, along with facilitating payment plans.

GWW director Cameron Fitzgerald said the company had “missed the mark” and encouraged affected customers to contact the company about any overdue invoices.

“We know we have failed the community and we are working very hard with our regulator, the ombudsman, to improve our systems,” Fitzgerald told 9News.

“We are about halfway through our catch-up billing approach, which aims to get people back to their normal billing cycle so they can have confidence in their water bills, what they are getting and how we move forward.

“We want people to call us because we know we did this wrong, we know 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 that the billing issues have caused significant frustration for our customers and we are truly sorry for the impact this has had,” Alvares said.

“No one is expected to pay a large amount at once.”

The Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria (EWOV) said it dealt with almost 4000 civil engineering complaints between October 2024 and March 2026.

There were 120 complaints about overdue bills for the month of March.

“Greater Western Water customers have reported a range of billing, customer service and payment issues to EWOV, including a shock to bills due to retroactive invoices,” said EWOV ombudsman and CEO Catherine Wolthuizen.

“In some cases, customers have received bills for significant amounts and had difficulty paying these large bills.

“Some customers have come to us disputing the accuracy of backbills, while other customers report never receiving invoices.”

According to the Essential Services Commission, water companies in Victoria have a four-month backbilling limit if a customer has been undercharged for water.

However, the regulator gave GWW the green light to pursue customers over unpaid bills in 2025.

EWOV said it continues to investigate pending complaints.

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