History
POS Network Architecture:
While POS Lavu is a cloud based system it requires a wireless local area network to operate. If your restaurant or bar were to loose it’s internet connection there is no way to process credit card transactions or use the system offline without setting up a Mac Mini Server. If you choose to go with the Mac Mini server option this will cost an additional $149/ month on top of their traditional pricing. Even with the Mac Mini server in place there is no way to accept credit cards in offline mode. This means that if you decide to go with Lavu you may want to consider having a back up internet connection and setup a cradle point system with cellular internet connection to ensure you always have internet connection.
Hardware:
Like most tablet based point of sale systems, Lavu POS uses industry standard hardware, like Epson printers. A full list of compatible hardware can be found on the Zephyr Lavu Reseller POS website, as POS LAVU does not keep a full hardware compatibility list on their website:
http://www.zephyrhardware.com/
Payment Processing:
POS Lavu can use a variety of different gateways and merchant service providers. The preferred gateways for POS Lavu are Vantiv, BridgePay, Heartland, Cayan & USAePay. Alternatively you can use PayPal, however they do not appear to have a true EMV solution that currently integrates with these MSPs or processors.
Customer Service & Support:
Lavu has 365 24/7 support included with their platform.
Pricing & Contract:
The most common pricing structure for Lavu POS starts at 59/month, this is with an annual contract. If you choose to go with a month to month agreement then the subscription is 69/month. Enterprise accounts require a custom quote to get specific pricing. More details on their specifics can be found on the toast website:
https://www.lavu.com/restaurant-pos-pricing
Web Resources:
Lavu Inc. Website – https://www.lavu.com/
Crunch Base Profile – https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/poslavu#/entity
Leave a Review:
What was your experience with Lavu iPad Point of Point of Sale? Please leave your review on our site to provide our users with your experiences.
After being a customer of lavu for almost 3 years, we have had enough. We are a small business selling less that 20 items & no more than 5 employees. lavu pos had problems from day one that caused hours of time on the phone with lavu trying to fix issues to make it run smoothly. We never got to a point where our issues were resolved. One correction would cause another problem.
First, we believed them when they stated that their pos would be great for our shop. Slowly we saw that system was not set to be able to accommodate our needs. Each issue would wind up taking weeks, months, or never being corrected. For the first two years we put up with the multiple hour long phone calls, emails, & facetime to walk them through each issue/ resolve. It just became too much of our time taken away from the business.
BE AWARE OF THERE CUSTOMER SERVICE. They will make appointments to call and help you. Then, never call. You have to call them! Each time you call customer service you have to wait 20 minutes to speak to someone and then explain what the problem is. Even if you already called about it, you are now speaking with a different customer service person & you have to fill them in on what is going on, who you spoke with.. so on and so forth. So, even checking on a status of a problem would be at least a 45 minute call.
Example- One problem NEVER corrected in the 3 years of being a customer, 50% discount button. Seems simple. But, every time we would have to hand enter it. It never worked.
Another is they had no resolve for satisfying local laws about what needs to be printed on a receipt.
They would reconfigure some thing that would cause another problem. Example- They modified our happy hour so correct pricing would show on the receipt. Then in us using it, the pos was taking a discount off the discount. Another example they had problems syncing the merchant cc company with their app. Customers were not getting charged or would get a double charge. Causing us to have to take a loss in sales. Lavu refused to pay the difference. Saying it was our fault.
Over the last few months they have shifted their company from a small business to a corporation that does not care about their individual customers. They changed the structure of their billing. Taking away service and features. But, raised our rates. Lavu changed their policy of helping a customer to blaming the customer. Saying there was nothing they could do.
BEAWARE- lavu has an extreme record of lying and blaming the customer. Nothing is ever their error. Also, your time is of no concern to them. They have no problem telling you to go somewhere else. We finally did and are glad to not have this stress of a failing pos system with awful customer service.
If you are looking for a new pos, continue your search beyond lavu.