Updated September 4th, 2015: to summarize all the information below - 3 years ago Clover looked promising but todays advice is to avoid Clover like the plague - I've stopped tracking the number of complaints specific to Clover as its clear that choosing Clover is a bad decision.
Update July 6, 2015: no shortage of complaints against Clover specific to expensive long term contracts, costly buyout clauses, unable to transfer licensing if the business is sold, and sales reps making promises for features/functions that Clover just can't do. I believe the overall tally is over 400 verified complaints against Clover.
Update 1.January.2015:
Based on user feedback and the fact that First Data locks you into a costly merchant services contract when purchasing Clover, I do not recommend that anyone considers Clover as a possible point of sale system for your business or organization. There are much better systems on the market like NCR Silver and Bindo Point of Sale that perform at a same or better level and do not lock you in to costly merchant services contracts.
As I have mentioned in the past, I came across some issues with Clover point of sale when it came to actually selling the Clover solution (the folks at Clover said that they were "moving in a different direction" and didn't feel that they could support any new customers at the time).
I liked Clover as it worked well in both a retail and quick-serve environment. Well, it turns out that First Data Corporation (one of the largest payment processing companies) has acquired Clover point of sale and relaunched Clover with updated hardware. It will be interesting to see how this effects the merchant services options that Clover previously offered.
Even more interesting is that the Clover website states that Clover will be sold through First Data but there is no pricing information and only a "wait list" to be "one of the first" to get a Clover system. You can see more information at https://www.clover.com/waitlist or www.clover.com.
NCR Silver is one direct competitor to Clover so it will be interesting to see how First Data markets Clover. I suspect that there will be some incentives to use First Data for merchant service since there is more money to be made off of merchant services in the long term than off of the Clover hardware and software.
Bottom line: wait and see or look at a different solution if you need a point of sale system sooner than later.
*Updates 7/24/2014**Feedback Received in July 2014*
- Returned it (Clover) the next day"
- "(sales rep) couldn't even demo the system"
- "they will raise my (merchant services) rates"
- "don't want to be locked in to a credit card contract"
- "good step up from a cash register"
- "missing features"
- "went with Bindo which does more and doesn't require me to use a specific company for credit and debit card processing services"
The Bindo solution was mentioned a couple of times. Folks noted that Bindo does more than Clover and is even offering some various incentives like free hardware currently. If you are curious about Bindo Point of Sale, check them out at www.bindopos.com.
Are you in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice? I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (mountain time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com.
