Over 11,000 Californians fall months behind on billing payments after ‘headache’ software glitch. What to do when system errors disrupt your budget

Banning City Hall has fallen more than six months behind on water, sewer and electricity billing, due to the failed system and the time it took to get the old system back online. City employees are now having to enter data manually.

The backlog means residents are receiving two to three utility bills a month.

Bonnie Gonzalez told ABC7 she went seven or eight months without receiving a bill. Then one arrived in October, followed by bills every two weeks. She also said the online payment system system to pay online does not work consistently.

“It’s a headache,” she said. “Then sometimes you can pay your bill online, and then a lot of times the system is down, and you can’t, so you have to go wait in line at the city to pay your bill.”

According to the City of Banning’s website, officials decided in late December 2024 to revert to the legacy system, which has been in place since 1992 (2). With that system, “one month of utility consumption typically requires an entire month of staff effort,” the city said.

Reverting to the old system took several months because several related systems had been modified or replaced to accommodate the new software.

The city says that late fees have been temporarily waived “until the utility billing issues are resolved.” It also says that once normal operations are restored, the city “will offer payment plans and extensions to help manage higher balances.” ABC7 reported that the city will offer a 12-month repayment plan.

Late bills

Utility bills that arrive late or never arrive at all can wreak havoc on your finances and monthly budget.

When money is tight, it can be tempting to use funds set aside for a bill that is overdue on other expenses. Emergencies can also force you to redirect that money toward something like a car repair.

If you rely on automatic payments and are not monitoring your account statements, you might not notice right away that a payment was missed.

Banning suspended its auto-pay system during the billing delays to prevent customers from facing “an unexpectedly large withdrawal” if multiple bills were processed at the same time (2).

California wasn’t the only state impacted. In Covington, Louisiana, the mayor recently acknowledged utility bills were “a mess,” after some residents received bills showing they owed nothing for a billing cycle, according to a local broadcaster (3). Officials blamed a third-party software error and paused late fees and disconnections.

Residents of Loris, South Carolina, faced a similar issue last year. Some received multiple bills while others received none. A local news outlet attributed the problem to a “software glitch,” and the city said that residents wouldn’t face penalties (4, 5).

What to do

If your monthly utility bills do not arrive, confirm the issue with your municipality. If the problem is on the city’s end, make sure you will not be charged late fees.

If the online payment portal is down, check whether deadlines will be extended or if you need to pay in person to avoid penalties.