About Revel Systems
Revel Systems pricing
Revel Systems does not have a free version but does offer a free trial.
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- Industry: Museums & Institutions
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great
Pros
It's easy to learn and accessible. Having it on an Ipad means that it's large enough to know what button is being pressed, and to move things around if need be. Having categories set up is great so we can keep track of how much change we need or how many people came in to visit the museum, that day.
Cons
It can get a little complicated especially with adding discounts to certain purchases which can be difficult for our older volunteers to get a hold of. But is really it, on the basic side of things, it works well and does the job efficiently.
Response from Revel Systems
Bailey,
Thanks so much for the feedback. We're delighted that Barker Mansion is making good use of its Revel POS!
If some of your volunteers are having a hard time adding discounts, you can have them visit the below Revel University page for video guides detailing how to complete a variety of discount-related actions within your Revel POS:
https://revelsystems.com/revel-university/categories/discounts-combos/
I hope this helps! Please reach out to us if you have any questions.
- Holden at Revel
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
System Admin for Beauty Company with 4+ years of Revel experience
My role with Estee Lauder is Retail Business analyst for Le Labo brand. Because they use Revel which is unique to any other Estee Lauder brand, my responsibility is also system admin of the Revel software. From my usage perspective, I enjoy that it is self contained and there's not much we cant make it do to support our business needs. Over half of the problems we face actually are not with Revel at all, but the way have we extract data from Revel's server to publish to our master system (SAP) and supporting that integration. This was architected and is maintained by our organization.
Pros
Revel is very valuable to Le Labo brand because as beauty brand that creates hand blended perfume, we need to track all of the inventory at an ingredient level. From a Retail POS and inventory management perspective, Revel is a shining star. Deployment is easy, just download the app, provision, and as long as you have an internet connection, you're on your way.
Cons
CRM and eCommerce integration have been challenges for us, but not at the fault of Revel really. Being the large enterprise we are, the other areas of our business are cemented in the platforms that they use already, and thus there is no out of the box integration available for features beyond the core POS/Inventory that we rely on. The path forward would be for our organization to create new custom integrations to match our own internal business requirements. As far as a Revel review, the features that we do use and the support that we receive has been top notch.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Run don't walk AWAY from Revel POS
At the end when we cancelled was the crowning blow when they acted like complete weasels trying to charge us for one store and only cancelling one. . this went on for months. As I said--after dealing with Revel and their horrible customers service I am convinced this company is run out of someone's basement or garage. Run don't walk AWAY from Revel POS as your POS for your business. There are many other much better options out there.
Pros
Ease of use for staff and ability to implement our own gift cards & loyalty programs.
Cons
Pretty much everything else was horrible. Reporting, customer service, adding products and modifiers was a nightmare. Getting issues resolved --just getting someone intelligent on the phone was a challenge--half the time I solved the issue myself while waiting for them to try to resolve and figure out something. This was after waiting sometimes an hour for someone to actually pick up after you spent time on hold. All while trying to run your business.
- Industry: Museums & Institutions
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Overall Satisfactory.
Overall satisfactory. IT was easy to use and easy to train new staff.
Pros
Ease of use. Nicely laid out. Easy system to learn.
Cons
Poor system for retail inventory. limited uses.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
12 mos w/o Online Store, Still Billing Me over $500 Per Month!
Predatory, negligent, damaging. Never use this company, they outsource everything. You get a different person who has never seen your account every time. Hours of useless service calls and no one has the same story. We had to find out through months of labor that they cannot do what we signed the contract for due to skimp-flating their software and removing features with V2 Online Ordering.
Pros
Nothing!
Cons
Everything! Over a year ago we spent 10+ hours on phone on initial set up, over 100 hours on customer service, got bumped between V1 of their online ordering system and V2, neither of which have a complete set of features allowing for pick up and shipping. That was falsely sold and they are in breach of contract unable to fulfill the terms. The matter is being transferred to our attorney for resolution, yet another additional cost we have been burdened with by this terrible company. Someone must be getting paid for them to grow so fast, sad they can't service their customers effectively, fulfill on contract terms, and follow with predatory billing. They have nearly put our small business out of business and are still taking the money out of our bank account despite blocking charges.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Pay Monthly to Access your Sales Data????
Fair to poor. It doesn't do anything better than other systems that we've used in the past. I hate how every feature is a required monthly subscription. What happened to developers making a great product and working on improvements to roll out?
Pros
It functions as a POS system. Nothing stuck out as especially good.
Cons
The UX for making your menu is much much less friendly than other products on the market.
Every single improvement that Revel makes requires an extra monthly subscription to access it. Don't expect any free upgrades.
And now a paid subscription to access data that is more than 12 months old??? Are you kidding me? How about closing out your books at the end of the year, or insurance audits? This is ridiculous.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Revel POS Systems for Restaurants
Revel kept deducting fees from our checking account for 2 months AFTER we closed our business! We informed them in advance of the sale of our business so that there were no surprises. We are a small mom & pop business and needed those funds. The new [sensitive content hidden] did not like the Revel system at all and went to Toast POS instead. We have been unable to be reimbursed for the months that we were closed and [sensitive content hidden] who processes the credit cards has ignored our requests. He has made plenty of money from us and yet continued to deduct money out of our account.
Pros
Not much. Poor customer service and follow up.
Cons
Difficult training the staff all the nuisances in learning the system. Managers also had a difficult time with the reports.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used for 1-5 months
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Review Source
****AVOID**** EXTREMELY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SCALES NOT ADAPTED TO RETAIL BUSINESSES
Pros
The overall experience has been extremely poor so there is actually nothing I would say that is positive about Revel
Cons
Revel customer service is extremely slow, as explained by someone else, you get to exchange emails with about 10 different people and no one knows what they are talking about. The average answer time from them is 5 days.
I have a deli in London, and I have been sold Revel as a great POS that would easily work with Quickbooks, which I am using. They provided me with their integrated scale, which was unable to weigh goods that were below 100g. Also, ti was rounding up so a cheese that would weigh 123g would come up as 125g, which is illegal.
I notified them and asked for a full refund (including the £2300 set up fee) , which they refused, whereas it is their fault if their scales are not fit for a business like mine.
DO NOT WORK WITH THIS BUNCH OF AMATEURS AND THIEVES
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Just Keeps Getting Worse
Pros
Onboarding was good enough, friendly staff. Support too.
Training staff on the POS is easy
Cons
It feels like every SaaS company gets to nickel and diming their clients at some point, and I guess Revel is at that point. $12/month/store to look up sales data beyond a year back. This is extremely problematic for accounting purposes. We're already paying $6,000 annually for the service and various add-ons... come on. But, we're locked in now - what's another $144/year? Pfft.
They recommended a gift card solution that, $500 later, didn't even work. We got an apology from the agent who recommended it, so they admitted fault, but considered it fixed with a $25 credit on our account.
Quickbooks integration is garbage.
Networking for the POS systems is a mess.
Reports are fine, not great.
Alternatives Considered
Square Point of Sale- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Run for your life
Disgusted by the absolute stupidity abd stubbornness of the software... hopeless
Pros
Nothing, overpriced clunky software with zero customer service.
Cons
Absolute shute software with no service. Rude non responsive no Australian service .. look.elswhere
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
A great system for our needs and wonderful sales and implementation team!
I have a hodgepodge of software doing different things and using different printers...Revel Up has integrated all my systems into one system and one set of printers
Pros
Having detailed and well-thought-out software with lots of controls and options has made our business run much better.
Cons
I can't close out and email an invoice from the POS system...It lists payment as "deposit " instead of paid.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Mias Cafe
Excellent!
Pros
Very user friendly and great tech support
Cons
I liked all aspects of REVEL, sometimes I had a few cc issues, but were resolved
- Industry: Furniture
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Revel systems
Very satisfied.
Pros
Very easy to use and navigate through, most definitely would recommend.
Cons
none,Very easy to use and navigate through, most definitely would recommend.
- Industry: Chemicals
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
work with Revel systems
overall experience is good but many ways to improve here..
Pros
Revel Systems is known for its extensive range of features designed to cater to the diverse needs of businesses.impactful feature of Revel system is mentioning belowCustomization options: Revel Systems is highly customizable and can be configured to meet the specific needs of businesses across different industries.
Cons
below are the some features which need to be improved..1. improved customer support 2. Enhance product features 3. Enhance user experience 4. expand marketing effort: improving marketing effort would help to attract and retain more costumers.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Just what I needed (and didn't even know that I needed!)
We have now been live with our new Revel POS for a week. Naturally, there were a few issues during the switch over, but most of those were a) problems with my setup and b) easily corrected with help from the on-boarding team, tech support folks and very comprehensive online documentation. As of this writing, I believe we are finally “there.”
I am really liking Revel’s product. To be honest, I had no idea how much I was missing out on these past 4 years. I had just assumed that a mature and viable POS product did not exist in the iPad/Cloud arena. I assumed, incorrectly it would seem, that to get such a product I would have to one day shell out thousands or tens of thouands of dollars for one of the “big guys” with expensive hardware. I’m glad to have been proven incorrect in that assumption.
In my mind, one of the absolute best features of Revel is that it is so highly configurable. I have been able to create a POS that meets my business needs as well as the needs of my employees and guests. So far I have not had to “settle” for a configuration that works for “most” people. Instead I have found that I can tell Revel how I want it to work for me and it just works that way. I've never understood why most cloud-based POS companies think that they know more about running our businesses than those of us who are in the trenches. I have been delighted to realize that Revel is willing to put in the effort to create a POS that works they way we work. There is no one-size-fits-all, especially in restaurants. Revel's designers and engineers seem to understand that fact.
Little things like the following mean the world to me:
1) I can specify negative modifiers — ones that deduct from the price. Now my guests can truly have it their way and only pay for what they want. While I've always run my cafe that way, only Revel has allowed me to do that without a lot of unnecessary steps.
2) I can set up default modifiers, and more importantly when a guest doesn’t want that default it is easy to specify at the POS and it is obvious for the kitchen.
3) The flexibility of defining “one size fits all” modifier groups, and tailoring those to the needs of each product that uses them, has made my life so much easier. The modifier features are amazing, and I've just begun to scratch the surface of what is available.
4) And don’t even get me started on recipes. How I ever lived without those in my POS is a mystery. I guess I lived without them because I never knew I needed them!
In the past two days, my employees and I have been able to identify menu items whose gross margins are dragging us down. Since all of our products come with so many options, this has always been a hard, time-consuming thing to do, involving lots of spreadsheets and number crunching. Now that I have nearly all of my recipes defined, I’m able to run one Product Mix report whenever I want and identify problems before they become catastrophes. That alone makes the “extra” expense of the monthly Revel hosting fee worth it.
Even in a small shop, such as mine, inventory control is a nightmare. It has become very obvious to me that after a month or two this task will get much easier. Once I have finished tweaking my product and recipe definitions, I’m looking forward to “knowing” my inventory status with just the touch of a button. I know it won’t be completely accurate — no theoretical inventory system can possibly account for human error. But, I already can tell that it will be much more accurate than I’ve ever had before, and it will be more accurate without the drudgery of weekly physical inventories.
I would be remiss if I did not give a shout-out to your on-boarding and tech support people. They all proved to be very helpful, and very willing to let me go at my pace in this process. I am a tech geek from the days of Univac and IBM mainframes, punch cards and programming languages that are long dead and buried. Though I am now a chef I have never lost my love of all things tech. It was a pleasure to work with people who let me control the process as I was learning Revel. Their on-boarding team is willing to do as much, or as little, as their new clients need to get them up and running quickly.
If I had to sum up my early experiences with Revel and the switch over, that sentence would be ---- I now feel like I am more in control of my business, that I understand my business better.
As we enter our fifth year, a year that looks to be like it will be on schedule to be our first true profit year, that is huge. I'm looking forward to learning how Revel can help make that first profit year even more profitable.
Sure, there is always room for improvement. Revel, like most mPOS companies, needs to get their integrated EMV/contactless functionality up and running, not just for one or two payment processing companies, but for all of them. Having said that, I realize how expensive and how difficult that task is. But, if they get it done quickly and correctly, they will be a hard company to beat.
A few other reviewers mentioned one suggestion I will echo -- be prepared to spend some time learning what you have with Revel, and what it can do for you. Myself, I spent hours looking at every setting, reading the help bubbles for every setting, and making notes about what I did and did not want to implement. I asked a lot of questions. I watched a lot of videos. When I wasn't sure, I created tests, ran them and looked at the results.
Most importantly, I spent two days keying the same orders into both my current POS and Revel, looking for discrepancies and errors in my setup. Sure, that all took a lot of time. But taking a lot of time up front means spending less time fighting fires after going live.
What I'm trying to say is don't think you are going to get your hardware and go live in a week. I budgeted a month for training, setup and troubleshooting before I ever thought about going live. I think a month is the MINIMUM time needed in order to do it right, and I have set up a lot of POS systems in my career. Remember -- as restaurants, our POS is the hub of our data and data analysis. We wouldn't short-change our recipe development, or training our cooks and other staff. To succeed, we need great data that tells us everything we need to know about our business. Revel can be that vital hub, but only if we take the necessary time and effort in the beginning.
And, with that, I'll step down from my soapbox.
Pros
Flexibility -- ability to configure to work the way MY BUSINESS works
Customer support and training
Cons
Needs to get their integrated EMV/contactless payment integration up and running. Currently that only works for one or two payment processors.
Response from Revel Systems
Hello Chip,
Thank you so much for your detailed input. There's so much useful advice here! We agree that with a robust platform it definitely takes some time to customize, but once you do, you will reap the benefits of having intelligence about your business easily available. We hope to continue to continue to provide stellar service so that you can run your profitable cafe. Your shout-outs to Support and Onboarding will be passed on! Thank you so much for your support and belief in our product and what we are working so hard to accomplish.
Cheers and thank you again.
-Sarah, Community Manager, Revel Systems
- Industry: Furniture
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
100% Fail - Waste of Valuable Time and Money
Long and short, our experience with the Revel systems POS (our intent is to use it in Retail application) has been a nightmare. The problems started early on in being sold hardware components that were not designed to work in the way we needed to utilize them - despite us being very detailed in what we needed - and despite the Sales reps assurances they would (specifically the barcode scanners and printers). We purchased our system in Mid-March but due to delays in the build-out of our store front and arrival of inventory components we were not actually able to begin the on-boarding/product and inventory load until Mid-May and that's when things turned awful.
Our initial product information load seemed to go well, however when we attempted to load the corresponding inventory via the method instructed it would not load. Come to find out we were given incorrect instructions and fields/information that should have been on the load sheet were not there. That issue began 5/15 and was finally resolved 5/17. On 5/16 another set of issues started during the attempt at setting up our receipt with logo, company info, etc (figured we'd do that while the inventory thing got figured out. Wrong!) That was finally figured out and resolved by our onboard rep on 5/17 at the end of the day... with zero explanation as to what the issue was and if it could happen again. Since we were finally able to go ahead and get the first phase of products/inventory info loaded (our onboard rep did it for us because no matter what or how we tried it was unsuccessful) we scheduled our POS front end training on 5/19 - which also was a bust because we learned that none of our printers were correctly configured before our system was sent. This also stalled us from being able to barcode the items in the store until 5/26 when that issue was finally resolved with one of our barcode printers and the receipt printer (it is now 6/15 and the second printer for our warehouse still hasn't been configured... we have literally been dealing with daily issues with the backend system and front end system all this time and haven't even been able to address that yet).
Other issues that occurred (that are now resolved but no one can explain the how or why it happened, or will it happen again?) where the backend system spontaneously dumped my login information on 6/7. Our rep basically had to reset me up (2 more days down). Thought we were finally good... got to the actual POS and discovered that the login PINs for myself and 3 of our employees did not work (despite the 3 employees info being present and correct in the backend - my information erased again and defaulted to a generic 1234). Got that sorted a couple days later.
This weeks issue has been with the integration to Quick Books online. The POS is sending inaccurate info to QBO - and of course, no one can tell us why, or worse, how to correct it. One generally assumes that in business accurate financial reporting is kind of a thing... I mean Revel hasn't had a problem charging us the monthly fee all this time and I'm sure they track that somewhere, right?
Naturally in the month from 5/15 to today, 6/15, we finally hit our limit and requested information on returning the system (being willing to take the risk of being without a POS system at our opening and just processing manually through QBO). Our onboard rep passed us on to Client Relations and a few days later we finally get a generic, and frankly offensive, email from customer rep that in no way acknowledged our issues and frustrations - but instead had a copy of our Revel contact attached. I assume the point was to put it out there that Revel only has a 30 day return policy (keep in mind rep didn't say that in his email... he pretty much implied "figure it out for yourself"). Of course, since we bought our system in March we are well beyond the 30 day limit.
I really could keep going. I am just shy of now 100 emails back and forth about issue, after issue, after issue - none of which truly got any clear resolution or explanation.
I'll save you some time. Do not buy this system. Its bad, the customer support is worse, and like us some of you will likely end up tossing a system in the storage room and going to another platform.
Cons
Please see comments for a play by play and definitely look to other systems (the more I look into this, the more negative reviews I am finding that are sadly similar to our own).
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
WORST POS EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE!
Not in mixed company
Pros
It looks nice and professional on our iPad. To look at the homepage, you'd (think) it was a sophisticated system.
Cons
Rather than crashing the site with my bitter, endless ranting about this POS, (and no, that does not stand for "Point Of Sale"), let me just say this: This is THE most unintuitive system we have EVER used. And no, that is not just my opinion. With 6 other employees who use this thing (and 2 of them are former IT professionals), every single one of us agree it is truly the worst. NOTHING is where you would think it should be, and once you find it, you're going to have to go through multiple steps to find what you're looking for. There are multiple ways to perform many functions, but only one of those methods actually work. It's up to you to figure out which way will work. For example, you can hit the "add customer" button but it doesn't really ad them. You have to go to another screen to ad the customer and this method usually works, but you have to figure this stuff out on your own. And when you tell customer service about something that doesn't work, they just tell you "oh yeah, you can't do it that way." Well, why there is an option to do it that way? And the "backend" is just a cruel joke. I don't even bother to try and see what my employees have sold anymore because it's simply too much effort and headache to look anything up. There is no place where you can simply look up a customer, see what they purchased and their contact, shipping info. All of these steps must be done painstakingly separately. And their customer service people seem to know they're trying to help you with a shit product. Lots of long periods of silence on the phone as they try desperately to find a nice way of telling you there is no way to get the damn thing to do the elementary task you need it to do. Oh, and the cost.
Response from Revel Systems
Hi Gary,
I have reached out to you via email directly to collect your feedback. That invitation is still open and our product developers are always looking for customer input on functionality and UI.
Thank you for sharing your feedback with us on Software Advice, regardless. I am sorry to hear you have experienced frustration with our platform and we are continually working to improve Revel.
Regards,
Sarah, Advocacy Manager at Revel
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Extremely overpriced fees and disappointing system!
Pros
It looks nice and sleek on the counter. The actual POS is pretty straight forward after training and most employees caught on quickly.
Cons
Where to start?? First, the monthly fees are insane considering the poor quality of the product and customer service. For two locations and three terminals, we paid fees to Revel each month.
We've experienced a lot of equipment issues (tickets not printing to kitchen, card swipe goes down, mobile unit won't connect and allow orders to be taken, etc) oftentimes in the middle of a lunch rush.
We have at least 2 customers every single day tell us that the online ordering isn't working. The system will look like it took their order (and they'll see pending charges on their cards), but they'll either get an error message or nothing at all. We often have people show up to pick up the order they placed online only to realize that it never came through on our system, but Revel still posts the charges as pending and it doesn't drop off the card for 3 days....not a fun thing to tell customers!
We have not had a great experience with customer service, and often end up on the phone for over an hour (again, often during a lunch rush). We've had several instances where no one was ever able to answer our issue.
Our accountants (who exclusively do restaurants) have found errors in reports (including tax reports for the day) multiple times.
Overall, this system just doesn't live up to the quality that should come with such high fees.
I called and emailed to put in our notice of cancellation at the end of our 18-month contract (they require 30 days, I put in my written notice 60 days, since their team hasn't been super responsive), I at first would get no response. When I finally did they told me that I couldn't put in my request until 30 days, which just seemed odd to me.
Response from Revel Systems
Hi Meghan,
I know we have already spoken over the phone about this, but I do apologize for your experience. It sounds like you encountered a known issue with the Online Ordering that has since been fixed. I apologize as I know how frustrating that can be when you are in the midst of service.
We do appreciate your feedback and, again, apologize that we weren't able to work on a resolution for you sooner.
Best regards,
Sarah, Community Manager at Revel
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Revel = Overpriced, dishonest and corrupt.
Its terrible that a company can operate in this day and age with such dishonesty - from hiding costs, failing to supply agreements yet embedding them in a url link in the fine print to obscure it, Order forms that order monthly subscriptions then you find out it has a three year term that was never disclosed, sales men that tell you to contact their providers of equipment to get a price, sales men that lie and wont stand by their own word. Then you have the 15k cancellation fee for the 3 year contract you were never advised you had. Customer service teams that don't communicate and pass you off to each other to further yet obscure you from getting any value. A disgraceful company, shame the software is ok, they are now just a greedy corporation with no appreciation or view of their customers. With this company they customer is always wrong and they will tell you so. Overpriced dishonest and corrupt.
Pros
Back End Management software is good. Nice use of iPad.
Cons
Un-Intuitive setup. Most expensive iPad POS software in the market does not provide value for money.
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Customer since 2012: Easy to use, excellent features, poor customer service. Be careful...
Pros
This system is highly customizable and easy to use. Reports are excellent and Revel does a nice job of continuously updating the backend to be more useful. Keeping track of employee hours is easy and efficient.
Cons
We have been a customer since 2012 and Revel has changed the playing field:
1) Revel now charges more per terminal per month if you choose to not use their credit card processing service. This wasn't the case when we signed up.
2) We purchased 2 scales in 2012 and two more for a second location in 2014. Revel's updated system no longer supports these peripherals. Revel offered me a discount for replacement of these scales for ones that work. Not good enough! This same situation occurred earlier with printers which I had to repurchase.
In addition to changing the playing field, the customer service is not good. Expect the system to go down at least 3 to 4 times a year when Apple upgrades their iOS.
Revel has changed their business model. They are now in the business of credit card processing. I see this as a sign of a struggling business and would be concerned about their longevity.
3) Confusing payment structure.
Response from Revel Systems
Hi John,
Thank you so much for your feedback. I am sorry to hear that there have been issues with your scales and our latest release. I am confident that the issue will be resolved and do apologize for the delay. I have escalated your case to our customer relations team and they will be sure to address any outstanding issues for you.
You are always welcome to schedule a time to share your feedback with me at [email protected]. Happy to learn more about your experience.
Regards,
Sarah at Revel
- Industry: Sporting Goods
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Poor billing practices after cancellation requested
I think it's overpriced and too time-consuming inputting modifiers and making changes to suit our business needs
Pros
I got to keep the really expensive iPad. My workers made a lot of money in overtime because of the time on the phone with customer support troubleshooting problems with the software.
Cons
As a business owner please do your due diligence and run from this company. After calling to stop the recurring billing from Revel and receiving a ticket 1245556, which stated it was being sent to billing department for cancellation. Revel continued to bill until i contacted them a second time. Their excuse of needing to speak to someone in client relations first before they would cancel the service. No indication when the 1st request to cancel was made that I had to call or speak to anyone else. They go on and on about company policy and how I don't see it their way. Someone calls to cancel a service, as a responsible business you cancel it, you don't leave the account open and continue to bill. If I say cancel, I don't need a sales guy calling from customer relations to offer incentives or to gather facts about his product or why am I leaving. Stop wasting customer's time having them speak to multiple people just to have you stop taking money out of their account month after month.
Response from Revel Systems
Hi Timothy,
I do apologize for the inconvenience and added frustration. Revel has a policy in place to protect our customers which requires our customers to cancel their account with our customer service team specifically. Unfortunately, if they are unable to reach you, it can prolong the process. I have shared your feedback with our leadership team as we do understand that the experience has been a frustrating one - not what we want for our customers.
Regards,
Sarah, Community Manager at Revel
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
WOULD NOT TOUCH THEM
very poor
Pros
The local (Australian) staff who sold it to us, were helpful and it all went well. No longer managed by Australian staff and it went down hill from then.
Really have little good to say about it after 3 years of use.
Cons
Offered a one off fee relief of $200 during shutdown. Every other app gave 100% fee relief or significant discounts.
Cost of hardware was for fixed period, but they offered no discount once that period was over. Basically intend to charge for the cost of the hardware, indefinitely.
Support is provided by eastern European call centre. Pleasant and helpful but a minor language barrier.
Cant do many basic things you'd expect. Such as a set menu with course options
Level of integration is extremely poor. Basically all at additional cost. Including integration with essential accounting app, which they claim in advertising is integrated. Its not.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Overall Great POS System
My overall experience with this system has been fantastic!
Pros
I really like the ease of use of this system! It is very user friendly, especially for someone who has never used a POS system before.
Cons
There really isn’t anything I dislike about this system.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
2 years of ongoing crap
I wish I'd gotten another POS. Am actively looking for another, despite knowing how destructive this would be to implement.
Pros
Somewhat aesthetically pleasing, so customers comment sometimes. Overall everyone who actually uses it hates it.
Cons
Where do I even start. Personally the jump in per month fees with no notice and no explanation *tops* my list. Also we reported to them extremely basic functionality that's broken. There the slowness, no notice backwards updates, customer support, did I mention it's slow slow slow. The release updates that are inadequately tested. Then they're arrogant as hell about it. Don't even get me started on how painful, slow and counter-intuitive the backend is.
Response from Revel Systems
Hi Bob,
We would be happy to help you out, but unfortunately, cannot locate you based on the info in this review. We are sorry to hear you have had a poor experience.
We have been able to maintain prices significantly below industry alternatives for an extended period of time, but, as with any software subscription, we do periodically have to increase our price to continue to provide the service that you deserve as a loyal customer. We will continue to strive to deliver you the best features available at the lowest possible price.
We are happy to set up a time to hear your feedback directly -- please feel free to get in touch via [email protected].
Regards,
Sarah, Customer Advocacy Manager at Revel
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
An expensive
The Revel system is not for all businesses. The sales reps will tell you that the Revel system is capable of everything that all other POS systems will do. However to accomplish the same functions as others it is not as easy as they make it seem.
We have considered switching to an alternate POS system because the complicated structure of the Revel system takes quite a bit of work to manage.
Pros
The employee management features are good. It easy to create employee schedules and track employee profits and sales.
Cons
We switched to Revel from QuickBooks POS because we wanted to move to a cloud based POS. Our goal was to be able to manage our retail store and build an e-commerce business. We were told that the Revel system was capable of everything that QuickBooks POS did and much more. However, once we began building it out we quickly realized it was not capable of doing what the sales rep told us it would nor did it have many of the features we used in QB.
It took us nearly six months to completely rebuild our entire inventory system, because Revel did not support selling a single product by multiple units of measure (ex. soda by the can, case or 6 pack). Now that we finally have the system in place we've had problems with the inventory management system giving us false quantities resulting in over purchasing and/or running out of key products.
They also release new system updates and products every couple of months, however the new releases often have problems and many of the tech support personnel have no idea how to fix problems.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Unreliable
When it works it's great. Waaayyyyy too much down-time and too much difficulty getting back up. Not very reliable.
Pros
So aggravating.
Cons
Unreliable.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Revel POS system
Same system used for different areas of our business where we had different POS systems in past. Easier for administration, bookeeping, etc.
Pros
Offers both retail and restaurant versions of software that works for our company, which includes a retail operation (winery & brewery) as well as a separate cafe operation.
Cons
"CRM" customer management is lacking on the management side; purchase reporting only available for periods of 12 months rather than entire history for customer. Reports auto load prior to dates being entered; spend a lot of time waiting for a report to load to then enter actual period wanted for report.Features removed during updates (no longer have receipt option when comping items; for winery/brewery operations we comp out bottles used for tastings on a daily basis and used these receipts routinely, only to have the feature disappear with an update).Quite expensive for our seasonal business; we need several stations during busy months but have to pay quite a bit even when several are not used during slow months.
- Industry: Museums & Institutions
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Revel System as Inventory Management
Overall experience is good as we are familiar with the system. Revel support is generally helpful when issues require additional assistance/experience to navigate.
Pros
POS interface is intuitive and easy to use and easy to train staff to use in everyday sales operations.
Cons
Revel backend is confusing until one is familiar with abilities. POS interface can prove confusing for processing returns and exchanges of Merchandise. The sales interface can be clunky for processing larger orders.
- Industry: Food Production
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Robust POS system, new development mostly focused on Restaurant applications
Works fine for most of our specialty grocery business except as noted above.
Pros
Probably the most fully functional POS system on the market based on our review. Many features that we do not use, but are there for us if we expand. We have been using for 7 years in our specialty grocery store. Thought about replacing several times but can't find another system that has as many features and will handle the weighted items which are a big part of our sales.
Cons
Management console format is a bit dated now. Mobile reporting interface also clunky but works. Recently introduced the Como Loyalty program and have lots of issues with that program. It is not easy to use, and does not accumulate points for weighted items which is the majority of our sales. All of the new features and upgrades they are making for Revel seem to be focused on Restaurant POS applications.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Not a fan
I am not happy with the system. I don't think my training was great, we continue to have issues and I spend too much time on the phone attempting to fix things. Mobile devices and gift cards are still an issue. I have not been able to devote the time needed to fix the discount issues. I have had mixed results
Pros
Mobile ordertakers. However they are a constant problem and we continue to have issues with them.
Cons
Difficulty with spitting guest checks. Cause multiple challenges with discounts. Overall discount platform. Difficult to use and not meeting my needs. Gift card have been a consistent problem with much time spent on the phone with support people, but still no resolution. Too many issues overall. Today the credit cards didn't work because of some technical issue in support. They got it fixed and it worked fine for a few hours then it stopped working again. Too many issues that steal too much of my time. the system should be working for me, but instead It seems to make my job harder.....
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Keep your needs basic and it will be great
it has been a good first 7 years until we had to change to Adyen and installed online ordering, qr ordering
Pros
when the internet goes down Revel continues on for a couple of days with cash payments
Cons
its has become less service friendly now that all calls go to overseas and seems to be more tech orientated than customer user orientated
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Buyer beware!
Horrible
Pros
The only reason we considered Revel was because of IOS compaitiblity.
Cons
Bait and switch. Our monthly subscription started and $350. It is now for (with the same # of POS stations) $750. Originally you could use your own merchant account. Now you have to pay an additional $150 a month to use your own provider. I finally switched to a different POS provider. When I called to cancel, Revel says I renewed FOR THREE YEARS by a pop up screen. None of my employees saw the "pop up contract". Stay away horribly unethical company.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great system for multiple locations
Revel has allowed us to centralize the reporting of sales, inventory usage, time keeping, etc. Overall, it is a solid POS system.
Pros
The backend reporting and ability to view multiple locations from one place.
Cons
The online ordering and loyalty systems are not good.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Reporting and Accuracy
Overall I am happy with the way Revel can handle the complexity of the sales, and the real time reporting.
Pros
Reporting is real time and accurate. Variety of reports is exceptional
Cons
Help desk is hit or miss depending on issue and responder. This is improving but has a ways to go
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
QSR User
Good. Poor experience with ordering replacement equipment.
Pros
Reporting is very convenient. Real time updates. Flexibility with making menu modifications.
Cons
Troubleshooting software issues. The most recent glitch is with trying to order replacement card reader.Going on 3 months and equipment has yet to be delivered.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
We were sold a Lemon
It is a terrible system
Pros
Possibly the inventory, everything else is just average
Cons
I feel that I was the Ginney pig of this product. Your customer help line is the worst
Alternatives Considered
Toast POSReasons for Choosing Revel Systems
I thought it would help with inventoryReasons for Switching to Revel Systems
I thought I could trust the [sensitive content hidden] to help us with the product. He does not return my calls and my system is not working correctly. I constantly have my credit cards freezing, which causes customers to get double charged and then I have to refund them- Industry: Medical Practice
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Revel Was a Great Decision
The customer service is what really sold Revel to us. We had engaging team members throughout the entire process that helped us implement and understand our new POS and inventory management system. So far, we are very happy with Revel and the support we receive from them.
Pros
We love the ease of use for both our patients and staff. Revel is designed to be very user friendly and efficient.
Cons
The reboot time it takes when you reset the system.
Reasons for Switching to Revel Systems
The price, communication, and customer service lined up with our values and Revel had the best "value" for the price and wonderful service.- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Uogrades
n/a
Pros
Menu processing, scheduling, basic reports
Cons
Inability to create a report for individual product sales or cumulative product sales.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Great POS System for any cafe
Great experience from start to finish.
Pros
The ease of setup and timely communication between front of house to back of house.
Cons
I would like to be able to use staff scheduling but we have casuals ‘until required’ not a determined finish time but that’s a small problem compared to how good it is.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Good product great support
Pros
Support is fast and efficient. POS is easy to use at the back end.
Cons
Some of the options to group orders on the dockets printed could be more flexible so the dockets are less wordy and shorter.
- Industry: Tobacco
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The worst company to deal with and the worst customer service
Very very bad
Pros
Nothing , it’s really not good and the worst customer service
Cons
It’s garbage , don’t Ever take this software
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Hidden in the Terms and conditions
Terrible, we had been using it for a year, the previous owner had it installed for years before that.We were recently told that they are moving away from tyro, which is a major payment system in Australia , which was the first issue since Tyro are the best value around for eftpos machineThen not long after a pop up appeared when we logged in, stating that they had new Terms and conditions ( will attached if possible) which when you look at it its very standard, this happens from time to time. And you click YESWhat they dont tell you is that in the T&C's there are sticking you up for 36 months contract, this practice is deceptive since you have to go looking for this extension deep in the text of the T&C's.
Pros
Overall they have all the same features as all other POS systems
Cons
Zero customer service, they are based in the US
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
One of my worst business decisions....
1. Difficult to set up. I'm nearly set up now and it took me an average of 10 hours a day for 6 or 7 days.
2. Misrepresented themselves as being able to scale down for a small quick service bar with bar tabs.
3. Hold times for support are any where from 20 sec's-1 hour!! Unreliable.
4. Support staff are very nice and try hard to help, but there is some language barrier with every support staff member 24 hours a day.
After many phone calls, emails and frustrating nights I finally received confirmation today that they will release me from contract and charge me 45% restocking fee on equipment. IM somewhat satisfied by that. If you have a QSR or a FSR maybe they work....And maybe usually they answer support calls faster. I don't know. I'm just glad I'm out with a minimally painful 1k mistake.
Pros
Very adaptive if you are FSR. Many ways to get to open tabs. Support team emails articles and/or videos to help after virtually every support call . Support staff are very friendly and patient.
Cons
SOUNDED good, but they couldn't deliver! Make sure they demonstrate the feature you want to use before purchasing. I spoke to my sales rep for 30-45 minutes and multiple times and still the system did not work as expected! I could not remove the majority of dining options (we are a bar with NO food or table service) I need lots of tabs and good inventory tracking of my liquor, kinda like a night club. The system works for FULL service, QUICK service or retail I guess... Definitely not a bar with no table service. It is VERY difficult to set up!! At first I thought lots of settings = lots of customization. In my case I found it not customizable to my needs. I was calling support 15 times a day for advise and work arounds. In 1 week I waited on hold with support 4 times for 20-25 minutes each call. One time I actually waited for 1 whole HOUR! Thank fully I still had not gone live. I don't like the menu lay out. Personally I think the categories and subcategories take up a LOT of valuable screen space (BIG squares). I thought I could bypass the subcategories, but after purchase found out that I couldn't get necessary reports that way. Modifiers can only add ingredients. I needed cocktails that use less of one ingredient and more of another. Later found out that was not possible. Also 3 year contract?! Wow that's a big commitment!
- Industry: Supermarkets
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
One they get your money, you'll get neither a functional system nor customer service
The customer service is abysmal. Once the sale is made, you are chopped liver and the company really doesn't even seem to care if your system ever gets up and running after that point.
Pros
I can see exactly what we sold on a certain day. They look impressive so despite the fact that they have low functionality they look really pretty....but, lets be honest....that's mostly the ipad.
Cons
Notice how it's spelled rEVEL. (it's illiterate evil with an R). Things I though rEVEL would do but it doesn't, problems we have, and why you shouldn't purchase revel for your establishment.
1. When you set up a customer, they are not automatically set up to collect reward points. Your staff have to create a rewards card separately, then link it to the customer. We've had lots of input errors because of this. The customer and reward points numbers are a customers phone number, which means that if they change their phone number you have to change their customer number. Then deactivate their rewards card number. Then create a new rewards card. Then go to the back end and download the entire customer matrix, insert the number of reward points they should have under their new number, then upload all of the data back into the system. Something that you can only do when you are closed for the day. So many things with revel are like this. Something that should be simple is the most cumbersome thing ever.
2. Customers cant fill in their own information on the customer facing display which leads to lots of inputting errors.
3. The only way collected customer emails link into your email program is if you pay a hefty monthly fee (per pos station) for a third party app.
4. If a customer chooses to have their receipt emailed to them, the system does not collect that email and sync it to their customer identification.
5. In Canada here, there are no Province options when filling out customer details so we can't even collect their address properly.
6. Want to send a coupon to your top 50 customers? Good luck There is no report that you can run for that. Tons of data. No way to mine it. Have fun paying a third party to mine your data for you.
7. Want to know who purchased an item on a specific day? Once again, all this data, with no reports to mine it.
8. GLITCHY! Open orders hanging open, customer reward points not being accrued correctly, and weird little things like pop up balloons that slow down transaction time by 5 seconds, customer list not being alphabetical, orders re-opening hours later showing few cents owing on it, lag time between info going up to the cloud and back down to the stations. (a customer wants to exchange something they bought 5 minutes ago? They have to go to the same pos station they bought it at as the sale will not show up on the other stations for hours). Items that we sell by the each suddenly show an inventory of 1.86 units, where did that .14 of a unit go?
9. CUMBERSOME, the procedures for creating gift cards, processing returns, creating a customer, linking that customer to a reward card. All of it is just so damned cumbersome, takes so many taps on the ipad and is not intuitive....even for our millennial cashiers.
10. The sales people flat out lie. I asked really specific functionality questions from our sales person, who flat out lied about the systems capabilities. Then dropped us like a hot potato once he had our money. I spent the next month chasing Revel to make sure that the install happened before we opened. This attitude of sale first, customer service last, follows through. The hubs that they sold us are glitchy and faulty. We complained about them for a full year. Then we got an email offering us their new and improved network hubs. So basically they sold me crap. Knew that they sold me something that didn't work. Then offered a discount on selling the replacement to me.
11. The Customer Management system does very little. Once again, we had to pay a third party to figure out who our top customers were, then go through their profiles one by one to gather their emails to send them all an email to offer them a reward for being a top customer.
12. You can't redeem multiple rewards at once, or process a refund without a customer making a purchase(we sell milk in reusable glass bottles that the customer gets money back when they bring back their bottle, you can't process this if they just come back to return the bottle without making a purchase), or or process two refunds and a reward under the same transaction. So many glitchy things.
13. Someone will reply to this saying there are no open tickets on our account. And this is true. Because the reply to all of these things is that the feature doesn't exist and I should put in a request for a new feature. Which I have done. Repeatedly over the last 3 years. And here we are, still calling revel support asking why if you sell systems in Canada can I not enter a Canadian address in the system.
14. Poorly trained staff. We are a seasonal business and each spring when we open up, we have to have revel support enter some identification numbers on the back end to have their system work with our payment processor monaris (the only one they offer). It always takes several weeks of my calling back and sitting on hold to get this simple thing done. Every time. This is what it's like calling revel every time. I'm sure that there are lots of weird glitchy things with every system out there but revel really appears as though it was built poorly from the outset and has software flaws that can not be changed.
One of my managers spends 10-20 hours per week working on fixing revel errors, calling customer service, figuring out how the system works now that there is another update, writing detailed training manuals for our staff to us the system. It's just so time consumptive and terrible. It makes it all the worse that revel folks just repeat the party line and don't actually look for solutions to the system problems. "Fill in a feature request form" It's like they've all drunk the kool-aid and have become automatons controlled by an evil wizard named Revel.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Only good if your needs are very Basic
Overall Revel is a total letdown and will be replaced by year end with a better system, lots of things we were promised could be done require using their "Open API" which costs more per month than the entire POS system does for 5 stations. We were not told about the API pricing upfront (or that there was even a cost at all, it was pitched like it was included in the regular fee) just that we could use the API to do everything we told them we needed to do, my project manager informed me of the API pricing during our implementation, when I called out the sales rep for never mentioning the additional cost despite repeated conversations about how critical this was she told me "its not my job to tell you the pricing for the API since that's not my department"
It is also very difficult to impossible to find and load an order in the dashboard by customer. You have to load the customers orders report, find the customer in the list, click show orders, note the order number, then go to the order history report and then you can click through to the order, why isn't the order number under customers order a hyperlink to take me to the order?
They made a systems change to batch process updates to the POS instead of in realtime, we have a custom app that we use for check ins when a customer comes into the store and it adds customers to the revel system so we can link them to a sale and track close rate etc. They used to sync in real time from the dashboard to the stations, after a recent update it takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes for the customers to pull down from the revel dashboard. I have verified they show up on the dashboard instantly as they should, there is just a major delay in syncing back to the iPads now that was not there before the update.
Reporting is very weak in certain areas, you can't view profit by anything other than employee which is worthless if you don't have pay rates loaded which we don't since we aren't using that aspect of the system.
When we receive inventory in the store, we upload it into the revel dashboard via their excel template this works about 75% of the time, the rest of the time it just silently fails, you will never receive any notice that it failed, where it failed etc. So now before I do any uploads, I do an export of what we have immediately before so when it fails I can compare to the inventory after the partial upload to figure out where the import stopped so I can import the rest.
I could keep going but bottom line is if your needs are more than barebones or you are not a restaurant you should look elsewhere for a much better solution.
Pros
Overall they have a nice POS interface and it is pretty stable. Their pricing is also pretty good for the base system.
Cons
Functions are hard to find
Very much geared towards restaurants, so if you are in another business be prepared to see restaurant specific stuff all over you can't turn off
Material changes to the way things work with zero notice
Can only see profit margin by employee no P&L type report.
Inventory uploads regularly fail with no notice, and no way to tell what was added without doing a manual compare of before and after and trying again with the additional items.
Response from Revel Systems
Hi Michael,
I am truly sorry about your experience and I have shared your feedback with our sales management team, as well as the customer service team.
I am confident that once we get we get a bit more info from you, we will be able to come to a resolution in terms of API and reporting. Our customer service team will be happy to follow up on any outstanding issues you have.
Regards,
Sarah, Customer Advocacy Manager at Revel
- Industry: Building Materials
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Stay away this program
We are existing Revel System customer but I think our 2 year relationship is going to be an end. Changing a POS system is not simple but we still choose to leave must have our reasons. I just want to share my experiences with everyone who might consider marry to them.
1. We were told from their sale rep the QuickBooks integration will 100% work for Canadian customer because of this reason we signed off the deal, however we don't have a chance to test the integration because it was still under development, we should wait till the launch but we can't wait because we need a new system to support our grow. We did reconfirm the QB compatibility again and again so we don't think there will be a problem. We got everything setup and running, about few months later the QuickBooks Integration finally launched but they told us this feature strictly for US customer only?! This case only escalated to their sales team lead and they refused to go further higher, you have no easy way to reach their upper management team unfortunately we dun have any recording or email for the proof, they only offer a free month to settle the case. They would guarantee you everything at the beginning and once you in everything is just too late, we have learned a lesson.
2. We are not pleased and disappointed on how Revel handle system upgrade, almost every single incident causes us problem and certain level of business impact, we need to bend or change our business model/process to fit these updates. Revel introduce new feature but at the same time take away the old feature immediately, can you imagine how much trouble causing? For example we never had an option call “Credit Limit”, after the latest mandatory POS upgrade on iPad (this is another matter will mention after), we are forced to commit the new changes, we can no longer take "House Account" credit payment until we enable the "Credit Limit" option inside customer, but this is not the major problem, I am so shocking they don't provide a batch upload method, instead we are instructed to make this change inside each customer one by one, we have thousands of customers are on account. This is so ridiculous but why they can't just keep thing simple?
3. The Revel POS consist by two pieces, the frontend (iPad) and the backend (web management). Periodically they roll out major upgrade (notified) or small updates (silence) at the backend and then you must follow their schedule to download and re-install the new iPad App manually during off business hour to match your backend version, otherwise your iPad POS will not function properly
4. They have very slow development, usually the iOS App should be prepared and updated on device before the new iOS launch, but Revel work reversely, they will tell you DO NOT upgrade your iPad iOS Software whenever until they ready. They need to understand you cannot disable system update on iPad, until some point you will get the software update reminder popup crazy everyday on the iPad and you must choose "remind me/install later" to bypass but couple times my staffs by accidently hit the wrong button and fire up the software update, then the till will be out of service until we reach Revel support for fix. I cannot blame on my staffs in this case, Revel have to do something to avoid this to happen.
4. Support - their level 1 support is useless, even level 2 not really helpful, the most words I have heard are "Sorry" or "This is the system design, nothing we can do". I don’t need a sorry. I have a strong feeling their development teams make whatever changes they want without thinking the impacts would brought up to the customers.
5. The most funniest thing is Revel have a Voice of Customer team to hear your feedback, this is cool, they do reach out you to hear your problems or complaints but limited to listen only! They don't follow up anymore, I have one phone conservation and one email both sink into the deep sea, sigh*
Good luck!
Response from Revel Systems
Hi Column,
Thank you for your feedback. I apologize that the experience has been a frustrating one. I will share your input with our leadership and product team.
Regards,
Sarah, Community Manager, Revel Systems
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Full of Glitches
We've been with Revel for about 8 months now. I am on the phone with customer support weekly, nearly daily. Our initial integration with Quickbooks was not well supported by their staff and eventually I had to just teach myself how to get the system set up and integrated. We have constantly had issues that when I contact customer service they tell me they don't know why it happened and it must be a glitch in the software. My credit card machine broke after 7 months and Revel could not figure out how to fix it so I called the manufacturer and they told me it was a software issue. Revel's solution was to trade in for a new one, rather than try to figure out what the software issue was. The first customer service agent I spoke to did not even have the manual for the pin pad that I was using.
Multiple times Revel has stopped speaking to Quickbooks without warning and our data has not been pushed through as it should. I've been told that the exchange feature that is built in to the front end of the system does not actually work and so we should stop using it and do a work around so that our entries into Quickbooks will be correct. My completed invoices have gotten stuck between the Ipad and the back office and the payments have therefore not been received into Quickbooks until I discovered the problem. Revel has multiple times overtaken Quickbooks and changed the vendor information in Quickbooks. After multiple phone calls to customer support for a single issue I've eventually been told that my system is out of date and that's what's causing the problem, but it was never brought up in initial phone calls. In the same vein, there is no indication from Revel that I should update the system. In fact for the last update, the app told me that it was the most up to date, but finally on the back end of Revel there was a warning that I needed to update or my system would be obsolete. In fact I was running the most up to date version of the app, but what needed to be done was to download an entirely new app-that was not made clear in Revel's warning, I just happened to figure it out myself. Furthermore, had I not happened to log into Revel's back end on that particular day, I would not have known that I was required to update.
One day the back office stopped sending our daily emailed reports. When I spoke to customer support they told me that it was because the email addresses where the report was sent were separated by commas and not semi-colons. When I mentioned that the commas had been working for 7 months they told me that it was due to an update on their back end that now required semi-colons. When asked how I was supposed to know that and change it I was told that it had been a "known issue" for over a month and that some businesses had a problem and some didn't so they didn't let customers know about the issue.
With all the issues I've had, I've never been able to speak to a supervisor or had any kind of conciliatory gesture like a reduced price made for me and in fact had to pay shipping to and from returning my credit card machine. When I speak to customer service about issues related to Quickbooks integration, they are not trained on Quickbooks so generally cannot help me.
Overall the system is extremely glitchy and inconsistent. It cannot be counted on to work the same way from day to day.
Pros
-When it works it is more robust and better at speaking to Quickbooks than any other POS systems that we've used.
Cons
There are many, many issues that I can't explain because it works fine one day and not at all the next, with no reason.
-Past POS companies have emailed me monthly updates about changes that are coming and information about updating the app or problems that have been discovered. Revel does no such thing.
Response from Revel Systems
Hi Emily,
I'm sorry to hear that you've experienced frustration with the QuickBooks integration. I've looked into your support ticket history and it looks like support has resolved your most recent ticket. Additionally, in reviewing your QuickBooks support history with a QB Support Specialist, it appears that our sync has paused most frequently following deletion or removal of QuickBooks records, which the system references. This would be true with any accounting and point-of-sale integration and we recommend that customers do not delete Revel created accounts or records. In an effort to resolve this, our next release will include an enhancement where Revel and QuickBooks notify each other of deleted records to prevent syncing issues.
We send emails alerting customers about coming updates and features and it may be that you've accidentally unsubscribed.
I've asked our Client Relations team to reach out to you to resolve any outstanding issues and provide you with additional customer service. Thank you for your feedback.
Regards,
Sarah, Community Manager, Revel Systems
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Skeptical at first...
After months of wrangling with the decision of which system to invest in I cautiously went forward with Revel. 2 terminal system only so if it didn't work out the damages would be minimal. I learned the hard way jumping in with two feet real quick with Clover. (Different business than the one I bought Revel for. The CC processor is really to blame for saying that Clover is a good system for full service restaurants and I'm to blame for not verifying.) That was a disaster. Paying monthly for a pile of stuff I never went live with. Back to Revel. So many negative reviews made me really worried but after so much research, a: it seemed like it was very robust, more than any other cloud based system, something that would be difficult to quickly outgrow, b: relatively cheap entry cost, albeit the most expensive ongoing costs (more on that later), and c: every system turns out to have overwhelming negative reviews by my count.
After reading all the reviews 2 things stuck out to me. One, I was real concerned about the support teams. It was such a common theme amongst so many review sites. Two, I sensed a bit of naivete on many of the negative reviews. After reading between the lines I figured this was a very complex system and one would have to put forth a lot of effort to get it set up and working well for your business. It does not plug and play. It could be but you would be barely scratching the surface of what it is capable of. The lack of support made it seem like someone with little experience with computers and or POS systems should stay far away. We have been live for over a month and I felt compelled to get on here and tell about my experience. Completely exceeded my expectations. To be clear, it has been a challenge getting it all where it is now. We went live 16 days after it arrived in the mail. That's not enough time. My own fault for dragging my feet. Give yourself 30 days. That would be a nice luxury. Plan on adapting it to your business. This system is designed for such a broad spectrum of businesses so don't expect it to be perfect just for you. That will take time. We have so much more tweaking and customizing ahead. Recipe builds, ingredient unit and cost data etc. You will only get out what you put in. The support that comes with the system combined with the fact that you get lifetime updates as the system is improved and having features added makes the monthly cost worth it to me. Thanks to an agent of NY for giving me all the information I needed without any of the typical sales pressures. I will be adding the self serve kiosk sometime this month. Can't wait to bring that exciting feature to our customers.
Pros
Basic programming is relatively easy, uploading large amounts of items via excel spreadsheet was great. The support has been awesome! We have made a few mistakes on our end and they have gotten us back on track, plus quickly been able to guide us through some more complex feature programming. No issues have gone unresolved and none have gone into the 2nd day. No issues have been in any way critical or serious either.
Cons
Even though our system is 100% hardwired it still requires an access point that is wireless. I don't like the potential issues with wireless. A few days ago one of the terminals was having a spotty connection issue.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Total Disappoinment
I'd stay away from this system and this company. I'm a small business owner and I've spent more time trying to get Revel to fix their POS (point of sale) than I have running my own business. I will soon cut my losses and find an alternative solution. I promise, this company will drive you to extreme frustration. Finally, I recommend paying a little extra for a better Poiny of Sale system, you will find it's cheaper in the long run than trying to use Revel.
Pros
Very Powerful Database for retail store once you have all your prices and inventory entered. The POS is easy to use after (only after) set up.
Cons
1. Despite previous positive reviews for customer service, they are terrible! They are great for explaining how to use the product, they are terrible for fixing their own product! 2. ALSO, DO NOT USE FOR E-COMMERCE! The web order feature (e-commerce) is useless and looks even worse. Prepare to explain your problem repeatedly when using support. You will be transferred from one tier of support to the next. There's at least 3 tiers of support and they don't provide passdown info between support tiers. I tried the web order function, paid for it and found the shipping feature was flawed right before I took the website live. After 3-4 weeks of constantly repeating myself (explaining the problem) they said the problem would be fixed with the next update. They agreed to refund me for 1 month of the web order subscription. A few weeks later I called to check on the refund, I found out I was still enrolled and the promised refund has changed to a credit for a future month of the web order subscription. 3. Finally, Revel uses TLS 1.0 protocol. My credit card processor deemed this obsolete, and is going to charge me a monthly fee until they update the program. Or, I can complete a risk mitigation questionnaire and the fees will be waived as long as the program is updated by June 2018. The questions on the form are far beyond my computer/programming knowledge so I have to request support from Revel. I'm now at tier 2, explained my problem twice and still don't have any help. 4. If you are buying an existing business that uses Revel, you cannot transfer info from one revel account to another. They may tell you it can be done, I assure you they do not have the means to do it. You will find yourself starting over from scratch. As a small business, this setback was extremely costly in terms of man hours required to restart.
- Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
No Customer Service Department only a Customer Retention Department!
Sorely disappointed in this millenial run company. No sense of understanding of customer loyalty. When I showed up in person at their offices in San Francisco, it was lunch time and the elevators were a turnstile of delivery people bringing in "take out" food to the office. I was treated very poorly when met by the Director of Sales who tried to just pawn off my issue "until Monday". Here were are suffering from a massive company wide fiasco costing us many man hours and challenges serving our customers when these guys are just sitting around enjoying their venture capital take outs for lunch. Kinda hard to take when you're working your ass off 3 states away with no breaks and no one will even respond/acknowledge the massive mistake made by their company. We were finally told today that they do not even have a customer service/care department...only a customer retention department that they self described as the department for customers considering leaving. YES, we said...that's who we need to talk to (still at 5pm...no contact for this mysterious department provided). Creating an exit plan...Such a bummer. Had such high hopes for this product. Too bad the people behind the scenes totally stink.
Pros
Syncs for us seamlessly with Quickbooks online
Can handle large inventory
Lots of options for discounts and sales and alternative pricing and grouping
Love putting the orders together on on iPad and closing it out at the register on another.
Cons
Terrible, horrible, god awful customer service. The tech people are great at helping do a lot of things by phone; however when we did an update after a big fiasco with trying to resync iPads to printers and iPads to swipers, etc, we find out that our scale that we purchased through Revel for more cost when it was only worth less, we were told is no longer supported...this only 2 years after purchase. Sadly, we are so immersed in their system at present that we will have to purchase the new scale that they are supporting. We received zero notification that they were discontinuing the scale. The scale is a massive factor in our use of revel as 2/3 of our inventory is measured by grams. We have received run around after run around by phone, by email AND...even when I showed up at their office in San Francisco.