Lavu POS Reviews

Pros

Is an easy to use, easy to program POS system. We use it from the beginning of our opening. Easy to use for employees and low cost for owners.

Cons

Probably make improvement on the schedule part to be more robust.

Alternatives Considered

Avaya UCaaS, Clover and Toast POS

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

Prices, and easy use and opportunity to grow

Pros

Ease of use is important to a beginner in the field.

Cons

Backend layout is a bit clunky, too many drop down and making groups and stuff is a bit of a pain. Also when saving sometimes it seems to not save.

Alternatives Considered

Linga rOS System

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

Easier platform that Linga and pricing was better. also online ordering w/doordash integration with lavu was a must and they offered it but with much higher fees.

Pros

There are no Pros, this is an awful system and the worst customer service / sales team in the industry

Cons

Be very careful when they offer you interest free financing for the hardware, that's how they trick you into paying the software fee for 3 years in advance with NO way out

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing Lavu POS

Was looking for a more robust system

Switched From

Mad Mobile Restaurant POS

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

Their sales people promise the world and then some. You find out way too late they can't deliver.

Pros

The ease of going back to items ordered and changing modifiers.

Cons

Needs to improve on the reporting, lack of enterprise, and consolidated multiple store reports

Pros

It is very intuitive with a simple and easy to use layout. Pretty much everything is easy to find and easy to customize. It feels light and responsive where other, more expensive options often feel cumbersome. The chat and phone based service have also proven very useful at times

Cons

The online ordering platform didn't work very well for us, unfortunately, so we abandoned that. We love the everything else, though

Pros

The iPhone app. Really nothing else, really.

Cons

WOW! Where do I begin? Should I start with how they outright lied to me to make the sale? How about sending a completely incompetent tech support personnel company to help me with my network? Maybe I should start with the fact that they billed me today for Quickbooks integration that I DON'T EVEN HAVE!
Let's start with the outright misrepresentation of their product. I specifically asked if they had online ordering and I was told yes we do. After I had purchased the system and went to set it up I asked "Well how do I set up the credit card integration for the online ordering?" Then I was told "Oh we have online ordering but we don't have online payment" WHAT!!? This is 2017 not 1999 what do you mean you don't have online payment? "We had a problem with it and had to take it off line, we should have it back up by Nov."
Well today is 08-21-2018 and guess what I still don't have? You got it - online payment.

Pros

Used Lavu as our Point of Sale for years, I really like how easy it was to use and how portable the iPads are. Simple setup, we got it done ourselves in a few hours. Support team always there if we need it.

Cons

If wifi is flaky, system slows done, especially in busy times

Pros

Always prompt and efficient . They walknuoubthrough to make sure that you have gotten through, and that you are comfortable.

Cons

It does not link my inventory and doesn't have the capacities to do so

Alternatives Considered

Lightspeed

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

Customer support and price

Pros

The reports are extremely useful. I like the option to put recipes with the individual menu item.

Cons

When the system is overloaded and goes down, it never comes at a convenient time, generally Friday at 5pm

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale and Toast POS

Pros

Easy to use and train staff on. Customer service is always nice and helpful, stays on the phone, and then follows up afterward. Like the control panel and reporting.

Cons

Price point - it can be more pricey than expected.

Pros

I guess it's easy to use, but it's kinda clunky. Programming is inconsistent across different devices. The speed is ok. It does what I need it to do, which the #1 reason I went with Lavu over Square was that you could start a bar tab with a preauthorization.

Cons

LAVU complaints

Should get Free set up support 1 month a year; if there is an update we should get free support
Quick serve shouldn't disappear
Can't Add a cc to an existing tab - currently deletes the new order
Needs Select and Repeat button
Needs Fewer approval buttons
Should Show change on screen
Should add auto grat to total tips
Can't Change auto grat, % or amount
On tip page, be able to enter tip or total, and show total.
Entered tips should disappear from screen - be able to filter list
On End of Day reports page, discounts and auto grat need to be included. Auto grats dont go to the business. Service charges do.
Auto grats need to show on payments page
Chip cards cant start tabs. Cant have 2 processors in lavu - chip card and swipe card types
Tip screen times out , and deletes entered tips

Pros

The interface is user friendly, and tickets get sent to kitchen without many problems. But we could do this with paper

Cons

Everything else! Whenever we have a issue they send it to the "developmental team" also known as the black hole. When we signed up they said "offline processing was in the works" that was 2 years ago. Reports are literally ALWAYS wrong. If you look at sales on two different reports they never are the same. For a span of about three months they miscalculated sales tax, having us over pay hundreds of dollars! For a long time they randomly doubled numbers on server reports, and now there is a random .50 added to numbers on servers reports. I have a tax background an I informed them the liability they were putting on us and our servers by misreporting so they showed me on the IRS website where they were right, THEY SET UP THERE SYSTEM BASED OFF THE WRONG PART OF THE IRS CODE. Not to mention that it randomly opens tickets from all different times that we have to re-close and I'm not sure we get paid for them or not. When we call customer support they are really nice, but our issues always get sent to the "Developmental Team" to never be heard about again!

Pros

Menudrive is easy to program; took some time but our menu is large and we being a breakfast diner we had many options for customers ie: how do they want their eggs cooked, meat type, bread type, etc. Menudrive allows an unlimited amount of items & required info

Cons

when entering items it was redundant having to enter the time available (if it wasn't an all day availability). Lots of key strokes but once it's done, it's done.

Pros

Used the software for 9 years, pretty easy to use and setup decent feature set, great that it was Ipad/iphone based instead of having to buy specific hardware.

Cons

Light to non-existent integration to Square for credit card processing.

Pros

Easy to use the pos while you are busy.

Cons

The customer service is one of the best customer service ever.

Pros

Ease of use
Joshua Maestas from customer service was so incredibly helpful. He took time to listen to the complicated scenario we were trying to resolve. He followed up when and how he said he would. Most of the time our customer service experience is frustrating but he was truly a breath of fresh air.

Cons

Back end reporting; customer service. There are programming bugs and we continuously are told "development is working on it" but never saw any resolution. If it isn't a priority for you and not intended to be fixed then don't tell us it is being fixed.

Pros

Very versatile and easy to use. Easy to make modifications and adjustments within the system and customize to our specific operation.

Cons

Sometimes connection of iPads can be a little shotty as it goes for the order takers communicating with LAVU KDS, and it has been hard to get the problem fully resolved, but it only creates a mild irritant and not a full distraction from the overall business.

Pros

[SENSITIVE CONTENT] and [SENSITIVE CONTENT] are very helpful and knowledgeable in their fields. Great service and pleasant to speak with.

Cons

Menu drive online ordering needs to be more user friendly when updating items for pricing changes and adding pictures or descriptions.

Pros

Ease of use, flexibility, competitive pricing.

Cons

For three weeks in a row it has stopped working during peak hours on weekends. Customer service is a voice mail saying "we know there is a problem. This has become more of a sales organization than a tech and service one. Just horrible. Ruining our business. Stressing us out.

Pros

Customer service and ease of use for both administrative and staff.

Cons

Hmmmm....
That's a hard question to answer.

Pros

I like the ease of which the system is set up, its very user friendly. Even for people who struggle with this new technology.

Cons

I kind of liked the old set up, it was less complicated. The new updated version is good, but it makes you have to add unnecessary steps. Which sometimes adds to unneeded stress, especially when its busy.

Pros

I've had lavu for 15 years. It was great in the beginning easy to use, reasonably priced. Best of its kind.

Cons

Has become more complicated. Increased price. Ability to use multiple devices taken away. Crashes too often

Pros

Easy to adjust and change things.
Ability to access tabs on cell phone.
Nothing else to say...

Cons

Raised their service fee twice in several years.
Lots of glitches over the years.
Sales team always available but always have to leave message for billing and customer support.

Pros

Ease of use. New employees can figure things out quite easily.
Integrates smoothly with Vantiv (Mercury) including their gift program.

Cons

Until just this week, I would have said that the inability to take EMV, Apple Pay, etc. through our current merchant processor was my biggest challenge.
Thankfully for the support staff, I was able to purchase the equipment necessary and will be up and running with our new terminal and it's new features soon!