Talk to me about ePOS

[loosemarbles]

One of the businesses (coffee shop) that I am involved with is looking at a new ePOS system. I am pretty tech savvy, but this is out of my knowledge area.

The current system is similar to Costa, so pretty complex, with so much data available. Whilst we need to retain some level of trend analysis etc, the simplier the better. I was in a coffee shop (very hipster) today and they were purely using an iPad. It saves a lot of space, easy to use etc, so got my attention.

Anyone got experience or recommendation of a simple ePOS which links with Sage One, that runs on a tablet (preferably iOS)?

[uber]

I replaced full PC based systems for Square on Samsung tablets and its been excellent as we don't need bulky hardware anymore just a mobile router and some usb converters for the printers. Ready to go in minutes and works in offline mode (some event spaces we use can be a bit funny)

You might find cheaper CC rates elsewhere but they will do deals if you show volume and it scales great

[tharriso]

I evaluated every tablet based epos system recently and I went with Vend.

I tried square card readers but did not like that the pin has to be put in on the tablet, seems really dodgy?

We use izettle card readers.

[megaphone]

Have a look at EPOS Now https://www.eposnow.com/uk

[loosemarbles]

tharriso said:

I evaluated every tablet based epos system recently and I went with Vend.

I tried square card readers but did not like that the pin has to be put in on the tablet, seems really dodgy?

We use izettle card readers.

Vend caught my eye as well. How are you fairing with it? Any 'wish I knew before' things?

[uber]

megaphone said:

Have a look at EPOS Now https://www.eposnow.com/uk

Worst customer service in the world of Epos

[tharriso]

loosemarbles said:

Vend caught my eye as well. How are you fairing with it? Any 'wish I knew before' things?

Only problem so far is the user role permissions are not very flexible. So store managers either have to have too few permissions to do what they need or too many that allow them to bugger things up, or fiddle the till!!!

Really like the api we have our main database in sync with it automatically.

Was also the only one that worked well with a barcode scanner on iOS. But you are limited to the socket mobile one, expensive as only one with the iOS license.

[megaphone]

uber said:

megaphone said:

Have a look at EPOS Now https://www.eposnow.com/uk

Worst customer service in the world of Epos

The few times I've called them they have been fine, sometimes take a while to get back to me.

[uber]

megaphone said:

The few times I've called them they have been fine, sometimes take a while to get back to me.

Outside office hours they have home based staff who are useless and can't do anything but try and upsell you. One of our customers signed up, added all his products and tried to add the Paypal here app. He could not figure it out, we could not figure it out and after paying for the upgrade their support team could not work it out! Took them a few days to find someone who knew how it worked

[BigBen]

megaphone said:

uber said:

megaphone said:

Have a look at EPOS Now https://www.eposnow.com/uk

Worst customer service in the world of Epos

The few times I've called them they have been fine, sometimes take a while to get back to me.

We use them in our soft play business and have found them great to deal including where we have had to make support call (albeit usually in working hours although including once on a Sunday). Given a lot of our turnover is coffee / food sales I suppose it is a similar environment to a coffee shop.

The cloud access is also very good for keeping an eye on sales / stock etc

Ben

[CasioPasio]

uber said:

Worst customer service in the world of Epos

Really? I didn't know that.

I follow their CEO on Linkedin and he seems like a guy who cares about his customers.

They have actually expanded abroad to the US as well, so they must be doing something right.

[drainbrain]

Used them for a food wholesale business based in Majorca. No complaints. Very good, actually.

[uber]

CasioPasio said:

Really? I didn't know that.

I follow their CEO on Linkedin and he seems like a guy who cares about his customers.

They have actually expanded abroad to the US as well, so they must be doing something right.

I'm sure he does care and I'm sure they are scaling as they push sales harder than they do support. The product is OK until it goes wrong

[skwdenyer]

The only problem with many tablet-based EPOS systems is the lack of a pole display. We take it for granted on the cheapest £90 till, and customers really notice when it has gone.

For cheapness of hardware and system, I use Posandro on Android tablets for my wife's eatery - cheap as chips hardware, cheap software, does a reliable but not outstanding job!

Make sure you trial whatever you're looking at. Many have little quirks and foibles that make them a pain to use in your environment.

Re cards, we found iZettle very unreliable - went through multiple readers and had frequent connection problems. Swapped to Lloyds Cardnet "proper" PDQ - much cheaper (no minimum, like iZettle), more reliable, etc.

YMMV