All Lightspeed Retail Reviews
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Karambir
Non-Profit Organization Management, 1 employee
Used unspecified
OVERALL RATING:
4
Reviewed March 2022
Lightspeed POS User Review
Anonymous
5,001-10,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2020
Best POS System in the Business
We had two separate Retail POS systems in our organization. One was so antiquated it had to be replaced and the second one was experiencing issues everyday and the support was lousy. We purchased LightSpeed. I had the Retail Operators go through the setup videos and make decisions on how they wanted to setup the system based on the videos. Then, when the Operators completed their training, I had them configure LightSpeed themselves based on what they learned and the decisions they made. We then entered the inventory and the rest is history. I would recommend LightSpeed to anyone looking for a retail POS no matter what size.
PROSI have installed numerous POS systems in my 30+ years of experience. LightSpeed is by far the most comprehensive system, yet easiest system to implement and use. There support mechanism is second to none. If you look your question up in help, there will be documentation to answer your question, and chances are there is a video that walks you step by step through the solution. If you feel like you want to get live help, there chat mechanism is one of the best, better yet, the support people on the chat are the most patient and knowledgeable support people in the business. Simply the best.
CONSI don't have any comments for this section
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
Price and product
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
Previous system just was not capable of doing what we purchased it to do.
spencer
Restaurants, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed March 2024
A Disappointing Experience Beware!
Its like the DMV and TSA started a POS company
PROSI wanted to share my recent experience with Lightspeed POS and their customer support
CONSNothing but a nightmare since we signed the contract. Some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Haven’t even been able to get the POS up and running. Support is no help, and our onboarding person is non communitive. Less than a month in and we have no working POS systems. When I reached out to cancel my contract they threatened me with a $4k fine for breaking contract.
Vendor Response
Hi Spencer, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide a product and service that allows our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We regret to inform you that we are unable to locate your account within our records. We kindly ask you to contact your Account Manager for further assistance. If you require immediate technical support, please don't hesitate to reach out to our Support Team. Thank you, The Lightspeed Team
Replied April 2024
henry
Retail, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
2
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2024
Merchant is not secure against ilegal charge back
Easy to use, however Merchant allows debit card to proceed with a chargeback without returning the merchandise , scary and dangerous for any business.
CONSMerchant allows debit card to proceed with a chargeback without returning the merchandise , scary and dangerous for any business.
Nathan
Sporting Goods, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed September 2019
Lightspeed is among the best POS platforms for growing businesses
Lightspeed has proven to be an extremely stable POS system for our usage. Downtime has been extremely minimal and Lightspeed support teams are always able to get us back up and running quickly--often before the operating hours of our stores. With the stability of the software and the advanced insights into sales trends, we are able to understand our merchandising and inventory needs at a much more granular level. This ensures that we aren't wasting dollars on excessive inventory that is difficult to sell. We are also able to focus on the operational aspects of the business since the software has been so stable and reliable for us.
PROSThe sales tools are very easy to understand and enable us to train new employees quickly on the software. The software also makes managing multiple store locations easy and centralizes order and vendor information for our product managers to use across the company and analytics and insights that the software provides is essential to master the merchandising and inventory needs of our store.
CONSWhile Lightspeed offers excellent analytics tools and integrations, most of them come at an additional cost which may be a deterrent for smaller businesses. If you aren't planning on investing a great deal of effort into the growth of your business (i.e. more locations or omnichannel sales) than you may be better served with another option. Also, while there are several integrations and API connections available for the system without designing custom solutions, some POS systems offer greater scalability and integrations with software like third-party e-commerce management tools. When moving away from Lightspeed's products for solutions such as this, costs can quickly add up.
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
We prefer that Lightspeed POS is a cloud-based system that can run on a desktop computer as opposed to Revel's iPad operating system. Also, Lightspeed offered greater flexibility in selecting merchant solutions like payment processors and credit card transaction equipment.
Brian
Retail, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed February 2022
Great User friendly
Great easy to use manage and maintain. Works on almost any tablet phone or cpu.
PROSLove its ease of use. Cloud based makes taking it on the road to do mobile events a breeze for payment processing and inventory management.
CONSCould have used a little more help importing our inventory but after I figured it out it was easy to do.
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
Ease of use. Products can be searched via product number, skew number, upc or item description.
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
It was expensive to maintain and use and not user friendly customer support was the worst.
Miguel
Apparel & Fashion, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2022
Horrible Customer Service
After making our first sales we were told we would have to wait 2 weeks to get our first deposit. We understood and gave them time even though that seemed like a very long time to wait for a startup. Unfortunately we never got out money. We were not informed anything was wrong and only when we realized we should have been paid by then did we call and ask what was wrong. We did the run-around with their support team for more than a week and STILL have not gotten paid. They are very bad at response time and when you sit on the phone you can't talk to anyone except a support member who knows nothing beyond how to help with the software. Good luck getting an email to anyone in the payments office or even have anyone in the office on a random Monday because it's a "holiday"? We had to threaten twice that we would be moving companies before we got any sort of reassurance we would be helped within the next day. We have had to close our shop for a week now losing sales and making our potential investors skeptical of our business because of Lightspeed's mess up.
PROSThe System was very use friendly and I am sad to say I will have to go with another company because the customer service was so poor.
CONSCustomer service is worse than anything we have experienced with more than 20 years in running a business.
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
Functionality and features. Retail and E-com in one package.
Vendor Response
Hi Miguel, Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear that you were less than satisfied with your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide products and services that allow our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. Someone will be reaching out to you once more to discuss your request further and any next steps. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce
Replied June 2022
Anonymous
11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2019
Lightspeed at the speed of light!
We have had a great experience with Lightspeed. It gives us the reports that we need to run the business efficiently. The waitstaff can easily take orders and payments without any problems.
PROSEasy setup with great support from staff. Great reporting capability. Easy to set up users, products, etc. Great support staff who will help with any and all issues at any time. Can handle almost any need that a restaurant has.
CONSLonger learning curve than some other systems but with practice is becomes easy to use.
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
Square didn't have the flexibility we needed and the cost was too high for the number of order entry ipads we needed.
Justin
Retail, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2019
Happy Bike Shop Owner
Lightspeed has been great to work with. The training provided after purchase was great. On going customer support has been phenomenal.
PROSReally like the cloud based flexibility. Also love the syncing ability with most of my main vendors for importing purchase orders.
CONSOnly con is the fear of web being down or my local internet service not working and if that is the case not being able to run my store. This is has never been and actual issue though.
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
Cost and the syncing capabilities with vendors in our industry.
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
We were growing and needed more stations in our store. The cost and clunkiness to do that with Quickbooks wasn't going to work. Lightspeed has made it really easy and seamless.
Sam
Building Materials, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2019
Best value & functionaility point of sale. Period.
Overall it's been wonderful. Certainly has made my slow business growth possible.
PROSAbsolutely the BEST thing about Lightspeed is the quick access to knowledgeable support. Also, Lightspeed meets the needs of my business's work flow. The interface is clean and easy to navigate.
CONSThat a default option is not available for adding a drop ship address to PO.
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
We switched directly from NCR to Lightspeed. I chose Lightspeed because I called all the other small green building stores in AMerica and asked which POS they used. Lightspeed was light years above and beyond the favorite. It was an obvious choice.
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
NCR's interface and customization requirements were extensive to get even a basic set up going. And the fact that they charge $100+ an hour for support.
Mary
Real Estate, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed December 2019
We LOVE Lightspeed POS Retail
More Accurate Inventory Many Sales Report Options Available/Analytics Ease of Doing Business Customer Friendly
PROSThis software is designed for RETAIL, makes doing business in our Realtor Store simple. Ringing up customer is a breeze. Easy and fast to create a purchase order and receive products to inventory. This software is intuitive and simple to learn. We keep track of our inventory and sales reports, with accuracy. Love the scanners and printed product label option.
CONSThe only negative is the long wait by phone, when we need to speak to support. Definitely worth the wait! All customer service people are polite. They always help us work through our issue with professionalism and follow-up email.
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
Even thought it wasn't the least expensive, Lightspeed seemed to provide everything we needed to meet our needs. We also had a great sales person, who explained the software to us and helped us along the way. His name was [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN].
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
RAMCO was not designed for RETAIL or On-line Store
Shawn
Retail, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2020
Best business purchase EVER
After investing in a competing product and being incredibly disapointed, we were faced with a tough decision; do we make the change to lightspeed only a month after investing $$$ that we did not get any value from? We decided to make the jump and were rewarded with the best upgrade our business has ever seen. This system is very easy to use. We have saved money and become more organized through efficient inventory management. Lightspeed has made our customers happy throughfast and organized checkout and allowed our staff to be the best they can be. Our service department has never been more organized. I feel like it has consolidated multiple areas of management and allowed more time to fucus on business. We re-invested for multi-years and could not ask for more from a POS.
PROSLightspeed is easy and efficient to operate. From training new employees to hectic busy days, Lightspeed reduces human errors and allows our staff and business to achieve their fullest potential.
CONSAs a relatively small business, it would be nice to have different register modes for convenience without purchasing an add on register.
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
Lightspeed was well respected and recommended in our industry (Bicycle). The feedback in the demo was immediate and we could see the value of this product in minutes.
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
We were mis-led by the sales team of our previous POS. The previous product was antiquated and was not easy to use. It was not well suited for our industry (bicycle) and did not integrate to major distributors and manufacturers. It also required weeks of setup with no support, only to lack basic features that would be capable from any other POS company.
Donna
Hospitality, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed October 2020
Easy to build, train and implement
I worked with other POS systems in the past and find Lightspeed much more user friendly than the others. You can build your menu in literally a few hours and the flexibility is amazing! I have not come across a single scenario in the build that isn't already addressed within the system. And the video tutorials are well done, explaining processes step by step, The technical support team are quick to respond and follow through issues to resolution. I recommended Lightspeed to two colleagues already and will continue to share my positive experiences with others.
PROS*Ability to build system at any location *Ease of use *Well produced self help videos *Ability to delete mistakes *Helpful technical support team *Integration with Cloudbeds
CONSThe end of day closing process is not as clear as it could be
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
as above
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
The switch was not within this company, but in my recommendation to use Lightspeed over Revel. Overall easier to build and train others to allow turnkey management of the system once built. I consult with businesses here to build their POS systems and recommend LS every time
Terron
Retail, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed November 2019
Terrible customer service and not user friendly on the Ipad
Terrible. I am leaving the system. I would never recommend this software to anyone!!!
PROSI can change the background? There isn't much to love about this system.
CONSTHe fact that they told me they specialize in using the Ipad, but everytime I call with an issue or question, customer service is surprised im using an ipad. Also, customer charges and accounts are extremely confusing and difficult to use. You have to acces them through the "Manager mode" which is the least user friendly program I have ever encountered. The worst part is customer service. When I need to speak to someone I am on hold for at least 15 minutes. Then to speak to a manager is 24-48 hours for a call back, if they even call back at all.
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
Shopkeep is what i will be switching to
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
For online sales capabilities and customer support. I am terribly sorry i switched.
Vendor Response
Hi Terron, We would like to apologize for your recent experience, and we are sorry to hear you were less than satisfied with the product and service received. We value our customers feedback, and would like to learn more about your specific experience, to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. A member of our Customer Success team will be reaching out to you shortly to explore different options that can help your business moving forward. We look forward to having the chance to speak with you. Thank you. Lightspeed POS
Replied November 2019
Josh
Retail, 11-50 employees
Used less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed March 2021
The Absolute Worst
We’ve been in business for 5 years now (and been in the small business world for another 15). Our experience with Lightspeed is single handedly the worst experience we have ever had with any vendor, rep, or supplier. And it’s not even close. I honestly don’t even know where to start. From the over promising and under delivering on the actual integration and battling back and forth for over a month on trying to get the setup right to deciding to break our contract based on all their broken promises and waiting over a month to have someone call and talk to me about what my cancel/return options were on our existing contract. I/we are the most mellow and chill people and company on the face of the planet and I have shaked with anger 3-4 times over this whole process. As I’m writing this I’m having the sales rep (who has promised me for 27 days that a manager would call to discuss my frustrations and give me options for officially canceling our contract) is emailing me and telling me to wait 1 more day. Which he has now said 5 days in a row. I just need to talk to someone besides him, a manager, a tier higher, anybody. I’m not even expecting to get a working resolution with who I talk to. I just can’t even start with the baseline of talking to someone other than my sales rep and at day 27, I’m tired of waiting. Thus this review.
PROSNothing In theory, the reporting In theory, the inventory management
CONSOver promised Under delivered Zero communication
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
So after months of that, we request to cancel our contract. That’s hard enough knowing the hundreds of hours and contract labor we lost out on. In addition to whatever fees I’m still going to be on the hook for with Lightspeed. But it’s insane that it’s been 27 days and I still can’t get anyone to call me back. Just emails from our “sales” guy saying 1 more day, 1 more day, 1 more day. Horrible company. I’d say it was a scam if there weren’t at least some positive reviews out there. This is the first negative review I’ve left in a decade as if I have a problem with a restaurant or business, I always call and ask to talk to a manager or owner and explain whatever the pressure point was. Which I rarely do. If I have a bad experience in either of those places, I just chalk it up to someone having a bad day and try to give them a bit of grace and patience as I’m a small business owner and understand how hard it is to hit customer’s expectations. But this is beyond the norm. And I’ve reached out multiple times to Lightspeed to give them the opportunity to hear our pressure points and make things right. I can’t even get that most basic of requests. Do not use.
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
This decision has cost my small business over $10,000. Which we don’t have under the best of times, let alone during COVID. But we made the decision to switch from our existing system to Lightspeed in an effort to better adapt to a changing retail world due to the crazy year that was 2020. We spent months and hours upon hours on phone calls, video chats, and conference calls making sure we had a clear understanding of the transition and integration process. Their sales team are basically con men. Promising that there will no hiccups and if there are, their team will be standing by with white gloves to help set things right. Hahaha. The sales team doesn’t know what the service team is doing and vice versa. We clearly asked multiple questions about how to connect the system to our existing website and migrating 5,000+ SKUs into their system and the sales person told us no problems that they do it 20 times a day. We weren’t even migrating from some obscure system. Square (for our brick and mortar) and WooCommerce (for online). It took thousands of dollars in additional plugins, services, and contract labor to help me get in the ballpark of figuring it out but at the end of the day, it still didn’t work the way it was originally promised by the sales team. Which we have in written emails and confirmed in multiple calls. Even better, calling and trying to talk to someone else beyond our sales team just ends in the same frustration.
Vendor Response
Hi Josh, Thank you for your feedback. It is our utmost priority to provide a product and service that allows our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We are sorry to hear you were less than satisfied. We see that our Customer Success team have already reached out, they will continue working with you to address your concerns. Thank you, Lightspeed POS
Replied March 2021
Mason
Retail, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed April 2022
If you want seamless eCom and Retail DO NOT USE LIGHTSPEED
I would not recommend anyone, in any situation, use these features or services provided by Lightspeed. They are money hungry and nothing else.
PROSI liked the sales pitch. He promised a ton of stuff that I wanted to hear. Unfortunately none of that stuff ever panned out. Just like a politician.
CONSHere is a list of my complaints about Lightspeed Omnichannel (eCom + Retail PoS) - No E-mail Automation what-so-ever, you'll pay $10/month just for Abandoned Cart Recovery E-mails - Are you a franchise with individually owned locations? No support for that. - You can only add one merchant gateway on your entire account, but you can have up to 100 locations. But if each locations needs a separate bank account, NOPE. - Loyalty and Customer Data does not sync between multiple lightspeed accounts to help remedy the above. - Online documentation is wrong about 80% of the time. - Importing products, customer data, etc is chaotic at best. - The eCommerce features are not in sync with the PoS side. - Loyalty program doesn't just have a "For every 100 points get $1 off" option, you have to set very static discounts for loyalty - Customer service takes weeks to respond if you have any issue outside of what Support can handle - Tech Support will respond with "Lightspeed doesn't currently offer a feature like that, you can custom develop your own though using our API." - Every action you need done, will require another department to speak to, which they'll get back to you weeks later.
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
The sales person promised things that in reality were never going to happen.
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
Shopify no longer supports cannabis companies.
Vendor Response
Hi Mason, We would like to apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. We see that you are currently working with a member of our Customer Success Team who are best suited to get you the assistance you need. We value our customers feedback, and would be grateful to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce
Replied May 2022
Anonymous
2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed January 2021
A great system overall
The ease of use for my staff is great. We also love the ability to add purchase orders and receive them with ease. Our old system did not have this. I also like that it has great inventory management. We just did a recent inventory count and that went so much easier than in years past. Also, the reporting is overall very good. It gives you a good insight into your data.
CONSThe Ecom side could use a lot of work. I would love to see a better way to do discounts and markdowns. The way it is set up now is very complicated and makes it a lot harder for us retailers to use. For the retail side, I would love to see a green light button on both the email receipt and email purchase order side. Sometimes I click send email but I can't remember if I actually hit send. A Green/red light would be helpful. Lastly, I would love to see a feature that incorporates a discount on items when receiving a purchase order. Currently, there is a box to input the % discount of $ off but it does not get incorporated into the product cost.
Alexander
Retail, 11-50 employees
Used less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
2
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed March 2019
BUYER BEWARE! I WAS SCAMMED BY LIGHTSPEED RETAIL
BEFORE MY LIGHTSPEED RETAIL EXPERIENCE: I have been with Lightspeed Onsite (different program that is server based, not online based) since I believe 2013 and have been super impressed, referring their software to friends and other local business, literally like if I was a rep for light-speed. AFTER MY LIGHTSPEED RETAIL EXPERIENCE: I was scammed by Lightspeed Rep [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] Campanile who straight up told me YES, YES, YES. Then his manager [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] was not only rude, but completely unhelpful, difficult to get a hold of, very late to return calls, and would push me off to support, who then would just tell me they couldn't help me with the issues of Lightspeed Retail as the software wasn't programmed to accomplish what I needed. I had never experienced Lightspeed retail for myself, I was fed all these lies and misinformation from a slick salesperson [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN], and now when lightspeed has confirmed that this Retail software will not work for my business, Im being held to a 3 year contract and a $4,850 loss. All of my questions, [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] assured me lightspeed retail was the same software just better and more integrated, he told me I could continue to print my quotes with pictures as I was on Onsite (Not True) that they would have programming make the changes for me(Programming wasn' able to accomplish this, without me recoding the receipts for each and every receipt based on if it was to print pictures or not. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] misled me and lightspeed would not refund me or credit me towards onsite.
PROS...Lightspeed Onsite is a great program, Lightspeed Retail is not a good program and still needs alot of work. In my opinion it is being sold without the kinks and issues being worked out of it. Even lightspeeds own technical support reps will admit the many issues wrong with the software and specifics that are different to lightspeed onsite.
CONS-You are not able to take deposits on an invoice (without using a difficult round about method) -My inventory pricing can change weekly, prices are not able to be adjusted, but only discounted, and discounts have to be created, its not something you can just type in. -I sell Fish & Corals, thus I currently type them in as miscellaneous coral or miscellaneous fish on Lightspeed Onsite and then change this description to Yellow Tang, Clownfish, etc to reflect the name of the fish and then i just type in the price. Super easy on Lightspeed Onsite, on Retail impossible to do this. When you type in/scan Misc Fish, then change it to Yellow Tang (For example), as soon as you type in/scan misc fish again, it changes the first one to a quantity of 2, preventing you from typing in clownfish. How am i supposed to scan each fish? Even if I made barcodes for each and every fish, my pricing on livestock can fluctuate based on availability week to week, supplier country, and size, so I can just re-inventory 3000 fish every week. Not to mention we have over 3500 corals in store, and when we sell them they almost all have different prices, again I cant type these prices in. -DISCOUNTING IS A DISASTER!, you have to first create a discount and then choose it from a drop down box. So a customer comes in and negotiates with myself of one of our employees, instead of paying $60 for a coral, we sell it to them at $53, its not possible -Does not allow Negative Inventory List goes on
Jonathan
Retail, 2-10 employees
Used less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
2
Reviewed June 2017
An IT Pro's Experience with Lightspeed
I was hired as an IT pro to migrate a customer to Lightspeed. I have just under a decade in migrating large platforms and I have worked with numerous vendors over the years. Based on my experience, you can quickly assess which companies are "Sales Based" and possess no real infrastructure beyond the "Sale". These companies usually have very slick front-end websites, but fall very short when assisting paying customers to actually make use of the service. It is unfortunate that Lightspeed falls into this category. Lot's of promises up front, but obtaining capable support is not possible. Despite escalation and numerous phone calls and emails, not a single return contact was made within a week's time. To be sure, you can get a tier 1 person within usually a day, but they are untrained and are able to answer only simplistic questions. When a request for a supervisor is made or an escalation is requested, communications cease. Compounding this problem is the telephone "Firewall" they have erected around anyone empowered to address even the most basic of concerns. Over a week's time, I have been told supervisors are "Not Available" and will "Call Back" as soon as is possible. A weeks time to return a call to a paying customer is (far) more than sufficient time to allow. Unfortunately, once Lightspeed has your money, you as the customer are "SOL"! As a seasoned professional, it is my opinion that Lightspeed is a poorly run company and shows a troubling and dismissive attitude towards its paying customers. This "treatment" of its clients is well reflected in the reviews here. I am NOT a Lightspeed customer, as I am hired to work between the client and Lightspeed. As an IT professional, watching how this company treats its paying clientele has been disturbing.
PROSIs very flexible, can be made pretty (if you can figure out the documentation), and does interface with other modules
CONSThe company, the company attitude, and the support it provides to paying customers. The experience during the "Sale" was filled with promises of support and help to move from a new account to a finished "Go-Live" product. Unfortunately, the Lightspeed platform is highly proprietary and therefore, success for most is dependent upon satisfactory support from the company. Here, they fall short of success and short of the promises made. When attempting to work with the company, they fall short again, lacking any of tier 2 or 3 technicians needed to satisfy anything more than a basic question. This leaves so many of the customers without any real ability to make use of what they were sold. This is a company predicated on "Sales", "Sales Pitches" and "Promises", but fails to deliver on what was promised and paid for.
Marina
Building Materials, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed December 2021
Not Able to Customize Anything
We are a small retail store with three locations that does mostly local sales and some online sales. We manufacture some of our own products as well as re-sell other products. We also do a lot of large custom orders. We explained in detail to our sales person what kind of business we were and what our needs were for the system, including the type of work orders/invoices we needed to be able to format for our employees and customers. We were promised that all the forms and reports were totally customizable and it would be no problem. This is not the case at all! The work order forms and invoices can barely be customized and the only way you can customize it is if you know script or how to write in code. We've called customer support and they have offered no help on how we can customize it to fit our needs or even offer some outside resources that we would be glad to pay for. All we've gotten is "sorry, we can't help. if you want to request for this feature in the future, they may or may not add it." We were fully expecting and promised to be able to format our work orders and reports from the start, but now we can't every run our business out of this system. Total waste of money!
PROS- The retail POS side works fine - e-Commerce side works fine
CONS- Very complicated to customize any forms or reports for your business or not able to customize at all - Lack of customer support - Sales person overpromised on what system was capable of regarding our small business needs that were explained beforehand
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
We were promised by salesperson that the system could meet our retail store/ecommerce needs and our needs as a service/manufacturing company.
Vendor Response
Hi Marina, Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear that you were less than satisfied with your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide a product and service that allows our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. Someone will be reaching out to you once more to discuss your request further and next steps. Thank you for your understanding. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce
Replied December 2021
Ernest
Retail, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2018
Best Decision I have made for my company!!
The features we wanted and needed in or software and love about Lightspeed are: 100% Cloud based solution True Omni Channel environment Streamlined processes Extremely well written software and Knowledge base Ability to upload vendor price list, descriptions to Lightspeed All of our vendors information is at our finger tips, before we would have to hunt or go looking for this information now it’s just there. Growing a retail business today can be done with lightspeed, since they have thought out whole process, and added a robust interface of features A seamless connection to QuickBooks online. We went out and reviewed, demoed almost 20 POS vendors some that were more specific to our industry and some that weren't and the boiled it down to 3 for all of our staff to review since they were going to be using the software daily and focused on the employee that has the most stress related to their respective job and targeted it first and secondly everyone else We had to have 24/7 support The most important feature we needed was it had to empower our team thru the business model we run and grow the team in all aspects of our business
CONSIt took a lot of time to get the information together from our 30+ year old company to go over to lightspeed platform from our old systems, and it was quite a chore for a small company. And not all of our information could come over in the initial installation lightspeed was somewhat limited, we could not bring our customers history and vendor history either. Reporting could be better and should be included with the base product, you will at some point "have to have the reports add-on" it is however an amazing extension on the base product. You have to have a good internet connection since you will be using a 100% Cloud based product, and you will have to have a backup internet connection, so you are always connected. We went out and reviewed, demoed almost 20 POS vendors some that were more specific to our industry and some that weren't and the boiled it down to 3 for all of our staff to review. We focused on the employee that gets the most stress with their respective job and targeted it first and secondly everyone else and Lightspeed has done this.
Brian
Retail, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed February 2024
Terrible Service, Outdated Product
We bought a business that used Lightspeed. On 12/22/23 the previous owner submitted a ticket and sent her rep an email, telling LS that they needed to transfer ownership to us. We were sent paperwork and filled it out immediately as we were closing on 1/1/24. Rep said everything was fine. In 1/2/24 everything was still in previous owners name. I called, gave up after 4 times of waiting for over 20 minutes, put in tickets and emailed our rep. Nothing. A few days and a plethora of calls, emails and online messages later, someone told me the rep gave us the wrong paperwork to fill out. We had to start over. This wasn’t done until 1/16/24, 16 days after we bought the business. But it gets worse! For all that time, all sales went to the previous owners acccount (she still had LS at another business) and all money from sales went to her bank. Again, call after call, ticket after ticket, nothing. Finally after over a month, the previous owner was nice enough to write me a check for the payments she received in error, but to this day, LS still hasn’t figured out how to get the sales that went into the previous owners account, to mine. Almost 60 days! I missed paying my state sales tax because I don’t know how much sales we had. Then to top it all off, I worked on our ecom/website for hundreds of hours. Added just under 4,000 products and descriptions and pictures. We own a retail Christmas store. I’d put a stuffed animal under “Plush” on the website. The next day I’d look and that listing would now be under Christmas Lights. Again to tech support. Turns out there was a syncing issue and they had to delete everything I had done. I have to start over. Redo just under 4,000 products. Put them in the correct categories. Hundreds of hours of more work. They didn’t even apologize. They don’t care.To this day, 2/22/24, the account still shows in the old owners, company name. More tickets, more of nothing getting done. More frustration. Please, please stay away from this company. They are truly horrible.
PROSInventory management was easy. The retail system is fairly easy, but the api from retail to ecom is one way, which is a major flaw.
CONSTheir ecom is terrible. Only thing worse than their ecom is their customer service. You can’t call anyone. Tickets take weeks to get worked. Only option is online chat. Try explaining a complex situation in a chat.
Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail
We purchased the business and it already had Lightspeed.
Vendor Response
Hi Brian, We sincerely apologize for any challenges you've faced while using Lightspeed. Your satisfaction is paramount to us, and we are fully committed to promptly resolving your concerns. In light of your recent experience, our Management team reached out last week to provide further assistance and help remove any blockers you that you are experiencing. We appreciate your patience as we diligently work to address your issues. Best regards, The Lightspeed Team
Replied February 2024
anna
Retail, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
2
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed March 2024
Over promise, under deliver
Overall, I have had a really negative experience with Lightspeed. Their account managers are not helpful and rarely answer. The company is focused on sales and add ons and not improving the product or ensuring the system does what retailers want / need
PROSLightspeed has the basics complete. Matrixes, easy sku set up and fairly intuitive POS.
CONSThe customer service is terrible. The team is constantly selling new add ons that don't work and then no one every responds. Overall, I have felt the system does not do what they say it does. For example, we were sold on a shopify integration, which is not true. We were also sold that their reporting is great. It is not only terrible, but you have to pay a lot more for any reports that give you actual information (like inventory valuations).
Reasons for switching to Lightspeed Retail
No longer available. Microsoft no longer supported this system.
Vendor Response
Hi Anna, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide a product and service that allows our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We value our customers’ feedback, and would like to learn more about your specific experience, to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us via email at
Replied March 2024
Alex
Furniture, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
2
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed March 2024
Basic functions do work
2 basic issues that they have not fixed have ruined my experience with what otherwise could have been a good system. Since I started using LS in 2019, when you receive part of a customers special order the system will put it into sellable inventory not reserved for the customer causing many inventory problems. The 2nd issue started in dec 23, I am no longer able to refund a customers purchase and put it back into inventory. A basic function of any POS system, its now march and still not fixed.
PROSFast, all online, easy to import and export between excel
CONSBasic functions simply do not work and have not been fixed after months to years
Vendor Response
Hello, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide a product and service that allows our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We value our customers’ feedback, and would like to learn more about your specific experience, to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us via email at
Replied March 2024
Sarah
Verified reviewer
Apparel & Fashion, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed March 2024
Avoid this system unless you wish to pay very high fees
We have used Vend for many years who were recently acquired by Lightspeed. I have no words for how bad Lightspeed and their company are, and I urge anyone considering using their platform to walk away and find an alternative. They have recently demanded that all users convert to their integrated card payment system or face charges on their monthly accounts of up to £500. We were originally paying £89.99 per month for Vend, which was then increased with Lightspeed to £129.99 per month. To then be advised that if we don't use their card processing servicing, we could face charges of up to £500 per month is astounding and unethical. We were advised that one reason for this increase was due to the charges they incur for our business using other payment providers. This is utter rubbish; I myself use a static card terminal in a bricks-and-mortar shop. Lightspeed doesn't incur any processing charges, fees or inconveniences from my card terminal. After many, many emails back and forth with our account manager and following a call, he finally understood that, as a business, we were tied into a contract with our card supplier and could not move to their integrated service as they demanded. I was advised that these additional fees would not be charged as we aren't in a position to move our card processing across to their systems. However, I have been told that my fees for the platform this month, based on our transactions, are now £250! When trying to speak with someone from customer services (surprise, surprise only possible online). I am told that this is because I am not using their integrated card processing service!!! I wouldn't mind quite so much if the system had shown vast improvements or if they had introduced new fantastic facilities online. We have actually found the system to be slower than before and with many glitches with stock deduction and control. There hasn't been any improvement. I don't know how Lightspeed is able to get away with behaviour that flagrantly ignores anti-competition laws in the UK. I'm in the process of finding a company that provides an online platform and has an honest and trustworthy approach to business. Lightspeed is definitely NOT this company.
PROSI was originally a customer with Vend and since Lightspeed purchased the company I can not see any Pros.
CONSToo many to list, but the company ethics are poor and I am not sure how they get away with the anti-competition methods.
Vendor Response
Hi Sarah, We sincerely apologize for any distress you've experienced regarding unified payments. Please know that it is never our intention to cause inconvenience. Our goal is to simplify your operations and offer efficient support for both POS and payments services, ultimately saving you time and resources. Your Account Manager has reached out to you to discuss this matter further. We appreciate your patience as we diligently work to address your concerns. Best regards, The Lightspeed Team
Replied March 2024