Anyone ever use LightSpeed POS?

[cowbellallen]

We've been using Big Business for years in our family business, and are looking for a new POS software. I stumbled across LightSpeed POS about a week ago and it seems like a very cool application and I almost want to go ahead and get it because it looks so easy to use, but I can't find any quality reviews for the software.

Has anyone ever used it before? Likes? Disklikes? Have a friend that uses it? Would love any input you may have, otherwise I'll have to keep using Big Business which isn't terribly user friendly and feels kinda dated.

 

[eljanitor]

The last company I worked for used it. It had some issues that they had to keep working out like any other software, a new release and patches to work out the bugs always. I thought it was pretty good once I learned how to use it.

 

[cowbellallen]

Cool, thanks for the input. A lot of people said there were occasional issues with bug and patches and etc, but most of those reviews were from like 2-3 years ago.

 

[darrelle]

Check out MerchantOS (merchantos.com) as you can use any computer and they host the software, servers, perform updates, etc. We use it in my store and as long as you have a reliable internet connection it's great. I've used it on my iPad out of the store to look things up too.

 

[jwilky]

Our store has been using LightSpeed for over five years. It's not perfect, but I've never encountered a perfect POS system. We track a pretty high-value, serialized inventory and rely on LightSpeed to make sure we have what we need in stock.

We recently started using LightSpeed Mobile for inventory lookups in-store and for collecting payment at a customer's location and use web store for repair and order lookups.

They have a demo you can download at xsilva.com/demo.

For the price point, it's a great, mid-level POS. On the Mac-side, nothing can touch it.

 

[saberahul]

What's POS? Piece of Sh**?

 

[rumjungle]

Problems with Lightspeed

Lightspeed is based on a Cost-Averaging system. This means every time a vendor changes a product's price and you put in the new price, it averages the cost of the item. For instance, if it originally cost $10.00 and it now cost 12.00, Lightspeed will make the Cost of Goods Sold for that item 11.00. And when you try to tell the IRS that your cost was actually 12.00, do you think they will allow it? No, you must manually go back into each and every invoice where you've sold that item and change the Cost to 12.00 so that your COS in your Accounting exports/reports reflects the correct amount for your taxes. If the price then goes up to 14.00, the Cost of Goods Sold for that item in Lightspeed will show 11.67. But your actual cost was 14.00 at this point, so now you have to go back and change the Cost in all your invoices for each one that cost you 14.00. And heaven forbid the cost goes back down to 13.00, because now Lightspeed will show the cost as 12.25! And once again, you have to change all the invoices.

 

[ANUWAYHYDRO]

I would say run

All you will do is pay pay pay and i dont mind paying

 

[glutenenvy]

I stumbled across LightSpeed POS about a week ago and it seems like a very cool application and I almost want to go ahead and get it because it looks so easy to use, but I can't find any quality reviews for the software.

Ok so this is an OLD thread but this will be useful to somebody.

I've noticed the Posh store in Bridgeport using lightspeed. Give a clerk a call 503-290-1094.

1. Get the demo.
2a. If you are going to do the online store, you do not have to host with lightspeed. The lightspeed servers are in Canada and where I am at seem slow.
2b. Two options on the webstore. Using the lightspeed provided software for the store will allow for the most interoperability.
2c. If the webstore is an option in the future, be sure to check it out during the demo so you can be sure it does everything you need without a large amount of customization.
2d. The skins that come with the webstore are generic. Contrary to what sales will lead you to believe you will want to hire a developer to customize the skin.
3. Not everything that can be done on the desktop client can be done on the ios client. However if you are building an invoice with a customer while walking through your store, this is pretty slick.

Most importantly, the part of Canada they are from is bilingual but speak way to fast to follow without telling them to slow down occasionally unless you're from the area. Its like conversing with a grown man talking at the speed of an excited school girl.

Finally, they occasionally have specials. Don't forget to ask if any are coming up.

 

[cowbellallen]

Got a notification about this and wanted to respond. Lightspeed sucked for what I was using it for, and I wouldn't recommend it at all for ecommerce.

If you need an ecommerce solution, get Shopify. Maybe check out BigCommerce, but I can assure you Shopify is better at this point.

For a POS solution, Lightspeed might be good, but I honestly don't know about retail stores and couldn't tell you. The interface seemed very clunky, there were a ton of bugs I had to deal with, and it wasn't user friendly at all. I would look for something else, like an iPad solution.

 

[mattcne]

We've been using Big Business for years in our family business, and are looking for a new POS software. I stumbled across LightSpeed POS about a week ago and it seems like a very cool application and I almost want to go ahead and get it because it looks so easy to use, but I can't find any quality reviews for the software.

Has anyone ever used it before? Likes? Disklikes? Have a friend that uses it? Would love any input you may have, otherwise I'll have to keep using Big Business which isn't terribly user friendly and feels kinda dated.

We are also very unhappy with Lightspeed. They promise a lot and deliver very little. We signed up for their webstore to integrate with the point of sale and it's TERRIBLE!! When I complained about it the account rep told me to wait until January when the new version comes out. To make things worse we had to prepay 3 years in advance and now they wont refund our subscription. They have a "no refunds" policy. Ridiculous! If their product was any good they would stand behind it. Support is terrible and the product is full of bugs. TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY! DO NOT BUY LIGHTSPEED.