Lightspeed Restaurant

Best POS I've used

Comments: We wanted a simple to use, reliable and feature rich application and Lightspeed delivered, only wish we could write our own extensions a little easier.

Pros:

The ux is absolutely straightforward and intuitive, you hardly even need the manual from set up to production

Cons:

API behind a pay wall. As a software developer who casually wrenches and has set up lightspeed in multiple businesses, I'd have liked to get in deeper on the nerdy side. From a regular user perspective that's not an issue though.

Choose Lightspeed!

Comments: Lightspeed was, is, and will continue to be great for us.
Staff loves the ease of use of the front end. I love the simplicity of updating the online site, the data available for export in the office, and the full integration with our other software.

Pros:

We had the highest expectations for Lightspeed POS and have been ecstatic about the choice. Staff appreciates the ease of use and the quick customization (once familiar with back office which does not take that long). We have continued to appreciate the helpful 24 hour customer service team. Even when they did not have answers for our unique problems, they always did their best to figure out a workaround. The ability to export raw data of every receipt item for every receipt entered has proven invaluable. With knowledge of Excel, data analytics have been insightful and highly beneficial. Since the pandemic began, Lightspeed has continued to innovate and has improved their product which has allowed us to create an online ordering site for pickup and delivery. And the best part is full integration with our online site, POS, accounting software, and scheduling software.

Cons:

First, no POS is perfect, including Lightspeed. Understanding the back end has allowed us to create work arounds for things the software is currently incapable of doing as intended at this time. One thing has been problems with combos, which we resolved with a workaround. The biggest con is the process used for some software upgrades. Understandably, when a request is made often, it is pushed up the programmer's priority list. There are however some upgrades that, although not highly requested, can definitely improve the product. I have several requests into the programmers at this time.

Not interested in much other than sales

Comments: Implementation was terrible. The salesman made onboarding sound very simple, but when I was putting my items into the system, it was no better than square to do. The company's idea of helping you seems to be to create videos for you to figure out their software so that they don't really have to help you. The few times I called to try to get help with items, the support staff was very short and seemed more interested in just getting you off the phone and moving on. Perhaps there performance reviews are based on quantity of clients "helped". I was very clear with the sales team about what I needed for my business. I messed up when I quickly glanced at the invoice of equipment they sent me and didn't see the discrepancy in the quantities. Also, I came to find out that their claim that none of the equipment that I already had with square would be compatible with lightspeed is completely false. They basically sent me the same star printers that I had with square and cash drawers that I could have used with my current printers as well. While the pricing online says the monthly fees, their salesman knew that I needed more registers than they sent me. Some time later, I requested that they send me the rest of the registers that I needed as I had originally requested and chalked the wrong number up to a mistake. They sent me the hardware and threw a bunch of additional software charges in the mix without even mentioning them. All charges were made before I even saw an invoice.
I confronted them about it and the initial response was "all sales are final". At that point, I told them that they had two weeks to get back to me on how would reconcile the mistakes made by their company to retain me as a customer and mend our relationship. I didn't hear from them at all during that time. When they finally got back to me, I told them that I did not want to continue my relationship with them anymore, and and that I understood that I'd incur some costs in severing the partnership, but I thought it should be fair. I'd eat all shipping costs and hardware from the first order, but I wanted a refund on the unauthorized charges and for software to be prorated to time elapsed only. I understood I would be out several thousand dollars. I was told "there is nothing we can do" by multiple managers. Finally, just today I received an invoice concerning my refund for the second order of hardware and the refund did not include any of the software as discussed with their managers, and they want to charge me a 20% restocking fee for hardware that never even made it to my place of business. The refund that they are supposedly giving me for absolutely no services rendered. This company is totally crooked. Do not make the same mistakes that I have. I will likely be perusing legal action against this company if they do not respond appropriately.

Pros:

I thought this product was going to be a great way to more easily keep my books up to date and get pricing and inventory dialed in as compared to square. It has a lot of functionality compared to a product like shop keep or square.

Cons:

Service - Limited concern for the customer's problems. No effort to actually work through and understand a client's business. Sales Team - Arrogant and dishonest Billing - Sly and deceitful. Invoices serve as contracts as they contain fine print at the bottom that refers a client to the company's actual contract and product terms that the client must hunt down for themselves. Management - No concern for clientele.

Good POS option

Pros:

Lightspeed is very easy to use and very intuitive for staff

Cons:

Inventory is limited and not suitable for businesses with a big listing of products

Take the plunge, get Lightspeed

Comments: Started with Lightspeed during covid, and it was possibly one of the best decisions we could have made for our restaurant. We are now able to accurately determine quantities of items sold and see what menu items are performing under to be able to advertise and highlight those items. Customer support is always available and I’ve never had to wait long to be connected to someone when I needed help. They will do their absolute best to fix every problem you have. We also recently went through a Hurricane that caused power and internet outrages for extended times in our area. We were still able to use Lightspeed despite not being able to connect with the internet thanks to their software and technology. Once the internet was restored (about a month later), Lightspeed was able to back up all sales and report information from when the internet was out. I highly recommend taking the plunge and starting up with Lightspeed. We are very satisfied.

Pros:

Ease of use, ease of setup, always someone to help available 24/7

Cons:

I can’t even think of something I don’t like about Lightspeed. We are very satisfied with them.