Lavu POS Reviews

Pros

After going through the set up of a rival product 2 years ago and spending 2 years using that system, onboarding and use of Lavu has been the best experience. The onboarding timeline was great to follow along as we were going through the steps. They were able to create exactly what I wanted for the menus. We had to use a system that is totally usable on WiFi. This caused a couple of headaches during installationb Using the system has been very intuitive. Training our team is super easy.

Cons

For the most part, we haven't had a bad experience. Even with the difficulties installing the 2 wireless printers everyone handled the process and the glitches with professionalism even when it took us 4 hours to get it right.

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale, Clover and Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing Lavu POS

The customer service at SpotOn was terrible. They didn't have a good solution to our WiFi situation. It was almost impossible to get refunds for our customers. Sometimes it would take in excess of 10 days and multiple emails to get the refund processed. I could do full refunds, but partials had to be done through their customer service team. I would have to include the SpotOn support team, the supervisor and our sales person on every email to get keep them on top of it. Even then I never would hear if things were taken care of by the extra participants on the email.

Switched From

SpotOn

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

The cost and the availability of a fully WiFi enabled system. The great customer service was just icing on the cake.

Pros

Initially it was the price that caught my attention. Then the availability to be able to watch tutorials on the product.

Cons

I would have to say, I haven't found anything I don't like yet.

Pros

i don't remember why I chose them over the three other ones I tried a couple of years ago.
I think because I could use my own credit card processor.

But its easy enough to use for the features that i use which are basic operation of cash register
it is intuitive and takes little training

Cons

things go wrong, the printer drops offline a lot and needs help getting back. sometimes its the wifi that reconfigures to a different wifi, sometimes the printer just randomly stops working.

I can't use the staff scheduling because they insist that work week starts on sunday, yet that is halfway through the weekend. our schedule and pay period run monday- sunday
but I am now looking for a system that can organize cake orders for a week or a month after the order is taken, which most systems don't do.

Also they said that my gift cards would integrate, but they did not

Pros

Easy to use, knowledgeable staff, customer service was awesome. Had no issues

Cons

Nothing. Everything was great. Lavu apparently hires the best of the best because I am completely satisfied

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Choosing Lavu POS

Clover barely worked, customer service was awful. Clover employees had no knowledge when I called daily and asked for help with several issues

Switched From

Clover

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

Better value, better customer service, knowledgeable customer service

Pros

Easy to use and customer service is excellent

Cons

Sometimes the machine will combine orders on computer

Pros

Its customizable and makes it so that it can be easily trained upon

Cons

It requires internet access for its use and wont.print a receipt if you are disconected

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

Cost and costumer service were the 2 biggest factors

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

A robust, yet very easy to learn POS. It has all of the functions that busy restaurants needs

Cons

Potentially being locked out of the iPod occasionally

Pros

They are very helpful. I love the customer service

Cons

Nothing I didn’t have any other one .

Pros

[sensitive content hidden] our on board hostess. [sensitive content hidden] is one of the best with a real desire to make sure she delights her customers.

Cons

Fees associated with product it's not until after you have the product do they introduce other associated fees that make little sense.

Pros

This software continues to grow with the customer demands. We seem to never be outdated or lacking. The servers have an ease of use on the floor with the iPads at table side. We love the software so much so that we will be implementing it at two other facilities.

Cons

There are cons to each software but there is not a dealbreaker for us with this software. It continues to grow and with that growth sometimes there seems to be the older than time conflict between tech and accounting due to reports however, the Lavu team are able to populate these reports in a timely manner. We have gotten everything we need from this program to meet the consumer demand of our growing winery.

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

The service team was extremely helpful in designing the system to meet our needs. Ironically we are more busy than we ever have been and this software and the tech team have been amazing in helping us realize the potential of what we can do with this software and realize efficiency through growth. We are happy to have made this decision.

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

Everything : fast and efficient and reasonably price

Cons

Nothing ; we are very happy in particular with [sensitive content hidden]

Alternatives Considered

TouchBistro

Reasons for Choosing Lavu POS

Price and efficiency

Switched From

Toast POS

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

Price and efficiency

Pros

I was an existing customer since the inception of Lavu in 2012.

Cons

I purchased the system in 2012. Lavu offered a wireless system when they first came out. I soon learned if you sent a big ticket to the kitchen, it wouldn't print. Lavu advised the system needed to be hardwired for the printers to work properly.
I was a gold member when I signed up. I was told my price would never be higher than [Sensitive Content] per month. This turned out, not to be true.
The system worked flawlessly until about 2018. Lavu would frequently go down, offline, drop printer IP addressees, rogue attacks etc. In 2018 and 2019 I lost a lot of money thanks to Lavu.
I closed as most restaurants did in 2020 due to Covid. During the months I was open I noticed one month Lavu would auto debit my account for [Sensitive Content] one month, [Sensitive Content] the next. In March of 2021 to avoid these random charges I paid Lavu a year in advance. It was around [Sensitive Content] for service and a monthly charge for using up to 5 devices. In June 2021 I had to close and sale the business for a loss. I contacted Lavu to refund my money, and they refused. Don't do business with this company.

Pros

How simple the product is to use is why we choose lavu

Cons

the security settings are not detailed enough for modifying it to meet my needs better

Alternatives Considered

Revel Systems

Reasons for Choosing Lavu POS

I like how simple lavu is

Switched From

Revel Systems

Pros

There are NO Pros for this POS. Never using the software is the best Pro out there.

Cons

After canceling the software - they kept charging our accounts for months. When confronted about the charges and after submitting confirming emails, they stated the charges were approved but offer no proof even though email confirmations from their own AR show the opposite. Customer Service might be the worst in the business. Told us they would return our call in 1 business day to rectify the situation and they finally replied 3 weeks later - Drained over $300 directly from our accounts. STAY AWAY

Pros

The cost was the only benefit of this software when I launched it 2 years ago. After they increased the pricing (with absolutely no warning) it was inline with most of the other softwares which are much more robust.

Cons

Where do I begin. Honestly, we had so many issues I don't know where to start listing the problems. There are many.

Pros

Everything! It's so user friendly. Reports are amazing. Makes book keeping a breeze. This system will track everything from sales, inventory, hours worked into great detailed reports. Our bartenders love it. Screen are easily read, and so easy to use.

Cons

There are a few problems we found with splitting and merging tickets. A simple call to tech and was fixed with in minutes. We also have a few things that we can't charge taxes or credit card fees on. You will have call tech to remove these these charges.

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

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

Tons of reports available, all tables at fingertips…

Cons

Wish all the reports would print from the new version by right clicking and printing on the page, like the old version…

Alternatives Considered

Toast POS

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

Price

Pros

Seemed like the product was a good value with useful tools. Operative word is seemed

Cons

The customer “no-service” department. Difficult communicating with overseas technicians

Pros

Easy to use, very friendly for the new hires

Cons

Some of the reports we need are not ready

Alternatives Considered

Aloha Cloud

Reasons for Switching to Lavu POS

Price

Pros

Easy to use the pos while you are busy.

Cons

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

Pros

It´s an easy sytem to learn and to teach to third parties, alot of filters to get the detail information needed.

Cons

One thing that i notice is that i can not move the category windows as i desire, to have a better organization in the POS. And another thing is that from time to time the POS in the tablets won´t let us login until some billling issues are resolved, not sure what is that about.