Thursday, March 21, 2013

Clover Updates

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 November 9th, 2014: Clover was acquired by First Data and relaunched. Still a great point of sale program but you are required to use First Data for all credit and debit card processing services which locks you in to a contract and is something that I recommend folks avoid doing.

I have had a couple of calls now from Clover point of sale users who mentioned that Clover may be taking a different direction shortly.  The users mentioned a lack of updates and that critical functions like tracking item cost and purchasing/receiving functions are still missing from the software.

Clover has also communicated to me that they are moving in a different direction and didn't feel that they could support new customers so I am no longer offering the Clover solution. I already offer NCR Silver which is a little more advanced than Clover but lacks the button-based user interface that made Clover appealing to small food service businesses.

Aside from that, here are the changes to the most current version of Clover:

What's in this version:
1.0.56
- New Order Closeout feature for managers and admins to set every open tip to $0.00
- New Reporting tab to view and print payment, item, and discount reports for the day
- Ability to print items and modifiers in a shorthand or a different language on your kitchen receipts (alternate names option in Order Receipt setup)
- Split payments evenly up to 7 ways
1.0.55
- Enhancements for Magtek BulleT card reader
1.0.54
- Various bug fixes

*Updates 7/24/2014*

  • 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.

2 comments:

  1. I've gotta chime in. I am currently a Clover customer. You are pretty spot on with your observations. My credit card processor (Merchant Warehouse) just dropped them. Clover is expecting credit card processors to provide Tier 1 support for their systems. They have also disconnected the one phone number I had for their support. Even when I call their support line, I am told they will call back...but never do. Anybody thinking about Clover, turn around. More problems than it's worth. Going to check out Registroid.

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    1. I appreciate you passing along some real world information Josh - you may also want to check out NCR Silver as well. I just received an update from NCR on some new improvements to Silver which I will post early next week when I am back in the office.

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