Harbortouch POS Reviews

Pros

Ordering tableside is great, no more going back and forth bother guests because a server has a MOD question. No one looks incompetent and as a business we look on point and there is no concern from guests out food quality is also a question.

Cons

It made me as a manager look bad!! The staff I wondered about anf seemed to have the most problems with were great on paper. Following sales and percentages I saw that a server I thought was ditzy and annoying but needed...had consistently the highest alcohol and wine sales across the board. I could see who was selling what, when and how they affected bottom line. Then I could coach servers on selling points, it's also a way to teach more about our products. I guess that's the least thing.!!

Pros

User friendly POS face for employees to use during business hours is easy to read (large font) & simple to learn.

Cons

If you want to see accurate payroll daily, if you think you will use this system to keep accurate track of your employee's hours or have them clock-in using this system, if you want the credit card processing to work properly every time you run one, or if you want customer support that fultills it's promises, then sadly, Harbor Touch is not for you.

Pros

Nothing.
The screen has no ability to modify the placement or order of buttons.
constant updates occurred during open hours, locking the system up for 30 minutes.
the reports put different categories of revenue in a different order each day, randomly.

Cons

there was very little in the way of reports to track sales.
couldn't track daily sales to compare from year to year, or track which hours had high or low sales.
labor was the worst.
once an employee was in the system, they were always in the way, with no way to change their status o inactive to get them off the screen.
Sales of gift cards were considered revenue, redeeming gift cards were considered revenue, so you paid income tax on the same income twice.
and the gift cards were expensive, of course.

Pros

We’ve been with this company for 4 years. Only having signed a 3 year contract.
Due to covid, we had to move our store and severely downsize to be able to keep our doors open. This meant getting rid of the 2 POS systems we had with Harbourtouch and going with something cheaper.
When we called to let them know to cancel, we were told it’ll be taken care of. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the contract wasn’t canceled and they kept charging. They then tried to tell us, we automatically renew for a year if we don’t call at the 3 year mark. Which is a lie and shady business.
That was 4 months ago. Three of which, we received some sort of charge.
We have been told for well over a month that they’ll give us back the funds they stole. We’ve lawyered up and will see how it goes.
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM!
They’ll lie and steal from you.

Cons

It crashes. Constantly. Be prepared to deal with loss of sakes and upset customers.

Pros

Nothing. We got the money that we processed through them...so, that's the only positive.

Cons

Their reporting is terrible. Very difficult to reconcile with transactions when doing bookkeeping. Their customer service is the worst. Long hold times. It's like they are stuck in the 1990s w/ their technology. It takes 2 business days for the funds to hit your account. My new merchant account deposits everything the next day.

Pros

The software worked well. The people at tech support were wonderful.

Cons

The system itself was pretty easy to use.

Pros

The service was adequate for the last 9 years. The only rather strange thing I found was that the monthly statements they send have information, name and contact phone number, from a different service on it. I had to remember not to call the number on the statement if I had any questions.

Cons

Harbortouch refuses to allow their services to be cancelled other than on an annual basis. They claim that information is out there somewhere, but it is not evident at all. If the date is missed, then Harbortouch will charge you monthly service fees for the full year, even if you aren't using their services. Apparently even 9 years of usage doesn't get you a break. If my business ever needs to use credit cards again, it will not be through Harbortouch. It's a shame, as up until the cancellation attempts, I wouldn't have had any reason not to go back to them.

Pros

It is cheap,

Cons

The layout, theme, support, any sort of extra integration you may need (Website, online ordering platforms) forget about it, slow running, wastes a tremendous amount of paper.

Cons

Let me start by explaining what initially attracted me to Harbortouch: 1) Low upfront costs, 2) Salesperson told me to expect my effective rate to be about 1.8%, 3) Equipment would be under full replacement warranty for three years, 4) Customer service would be on call 24/7, 5) Salesperson told me that they would be the first company to issue an EMV solution for restaurants, and 6) they told me that they had a reservation system built in to the system.

My experience:

1) The low up-front costs turned out to be "not true". There were a lot of set-up fees, printer fees, etc that they never explained up front.
2) Four months in to operating my business, my effective rate is closer to 2.55% (not the 1.8% the Sales Rep quoted).
3) I've had two hard equipment breakdowns in the first four months. Yes, they did replace the equipment but transit and set-up time accounts to over a week. So that's two week's worth of down equipment so I've lost internal capacity and added wait times to my customers.
4) Yes, customer service is on-call 24/7. BUT, hold times to talk to someone often are over 30 minutes. I typically need their help a couple times a week because the software is complete rubbish as well. Then another 20-30 minutes or so to resolve the software problems. So I lose about 2 hours of my life per week dealing with rubbish software and their Customer Service.
5) The EMV system is no longer even on the horizon.
6) The reservation system is unusable.

Pros

Ease of use

Cons

The fees involved. Too expensive!

Pros

The equipment never left the box so I'm unable to answer this.

Cons

After we hit a few delays on opening our venue Shift 4 offered to give us a deferment the last 4 months, not only did we never received deferments, the customer service was absolutely unacceptable. I've be trying to cancel and send back the equipment (that's still in the box) for the last 2 months. They continue to charge me and will not send me the cancel forms required after several phone calls. Once they made the sale it's all down hill from there. You get nothing but the runaround and they will not allow you to speak to a manager/supervisor. Frustration is not a strong enough word for what I'm feeling right now.

Pros

Overall works okay and handles medium to high volume usage. Once employees are trained they're typically good to go. Allows us to have as many users as we need. Customer support is rather helpful within the rather restricted scope of what the software can accomplish.

Cons

Most things about it. Software assumes that employees don't make mistakes and always follow company policy. More often than not when we try to accomplish something with it we have to find a way to trick it into accomplishing something similar to what we want.

For instance, company policy is that every entree must have a beverage. After calling support the only way to do this is to setup beverages as a forced choice on every item on the menu however that then means that those beverages are counted as food revenue at the end of the day.

System is obtuse about how to setup items. Items cannot be deleted so when there's a misunderstanding and there's 3 different entries for the same item on the menu, or we decide to change the layout of the dining room we cannot delete excess items or tables leading to clutter in the interface.

Pros

We had it for 4 years, it was down more than it functioned.

Cons

They trick you with the contract, giving you a 3 year renewal for the processing fees (which you must use Harbortouch for) and a 4 year renewal on the POS operating system. If you do the math, you cannot ever get out of your contract.

Pros

It was inexpensive initially, easy set up

Cons

Too many things to list- random outages, lost tickets, loooong support wait times, shady business practices, recurring nonsense fees

Pros

Not much, very slow, outdated. Terrible customer service

Cons

This system is very outdated. Freezes up constantly, customers are always waiting to pay and just walk out.

Pros

If you are into S&M and like torture,​ this is the system for you otherwise run away.

Cons

The customer service is lie after lie run around after run around.

The system constantly breaks, it doesn't have the most basic features​ that every POS company has been providing for nearly 2 decades.

I own 7 restaurants and this by far was a huge mistake, it costs more money​ in time and labor then what its worth.

Pros

Nothing good for the money. I keep thinking about what My return on my investment and this company is a waste of time!

Cons

Expensive service and when you have a issue they make you wait for a long time on hold!

Pros

I love how easy and user friendly. Everything is self explanatory but if you have a question their customer service is always so helpful and knowledgeable.

Cons

I wish the receipt paper wasn't so long. going through double the amount with the new card/chip reader.

Pros

Equipment and setup was great! the ability to duplicate items saves a ton of steps

Cons

Forget reporting it isn't happening. All I wanted was a transaction detail report for a previous month that included items. NOT happening. Call customer service and all they are doing is reading the KB articles. Ordering is not super intuitive

Pros

NOTHING!!!!! This company is a joke, they are thieves

Cons

This company is a joke. once they get you signed up you can't leave without spending thousands of dollars. Even when it comes time when you should be able to write a simple letter to get out of the agreement they come up with some crazy reason why your letter wasn't excepted and how your contract started over. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!!!!!!

Pros

Nothing ... Horrible customer service
Over charged

Cons

Over charged for 2.5 years and will not refund. Have to get an attorney

Pros

The fact that they provided a cash register too and all of it was already programmed.

Cons

They hold my money from deposits without notification. They put a 48 hour hold on my deposits, but take out their pay on that money within 24 hours. This caused significant overdrafts, which Harbortouch wouldn't help with or accept responsibility for.

Pros

Easy to use, efficient and great customer service

Cons

Machine could look a little better.its not a sleek as see others look.

Pros

maybe customer service, system is not very complicated

Cons

not easy on inventory tracking, unprofessional, hard to get out, they come back and pull money out of your bank account with different names.

Pros

We struggled to make contact with anyone at this business for years and finally threw in the towel and is still causing a headache.

Cons

This is the worst customer service ever experienced. If you're able to get someone to answer you get transferred around. We have been trying to cancel this service for over 6 months now and NO ONE will answer or return emails but they sure don't have a problem getting a bill out which is dated 2 weeks back. Very unprofessional and ridiculous business.
Wouldn't recommend to anyone