Kounta / Lightspeed Commerce Australia

Used to be a great system when was kounta for $60. Since changing to lightspeed have doubled subscription cost to $120. I was then constantly harassed by their sales team to use their payment solution and I declined as I'm happy with my current merchant facility and has cheaper transaction fees.

As of last month, if you don't use their payment solution, they will charge you transaction fees based on your monthly turn over through your POS. Charged me an additional $264 ontop of the $120 subscription. So basically if you don't want they're merchant facility they'll charge you anyway. Should be illegal.

Clearly there's alot more money to be made in merchant fees and they want a piece of the action regardless of their customers preferences.

What used to be such a great POS system when it was Kounta has turned into a money hungry company with no customer service whatsoever.

Oh and forget about speaking with anyone. You'll wait on hold for 15 minutes until the call times out, over and over again. Absolutely pathetic.

Avoid Lightspeed at all costs.

How can you do business with this company? Unbelievably poor service. Account managers MIA. Our daily revenue payouts stopped, with no ability to speak with support, no follow up. Holding on to our money. No solutions. No answers. No result. Sending us and our suppliers broke. This company is a shambles. Don’t use them.

Lightspeed has been an utter failure in service initially few years back they were contactable now impossible and recently we were hounded to use their Eftpos which I declined then I was informed we would be paying exhorbatant prices each month I declined as my business was for sale. A few months ago they had tech issues for almost 10 days they were not concerned how it affected our business nor were we compensated and still charged the full cost today I sent an email to cancel subscription was told my data would be erased but they could put me on a lite plan! Seriously I asked if someone could call me to discuss how I could export info for tax accountant sorry we only email was the response even though I did not authorise the lite plan they went ahead and did it. I’m going to contact fair trading tommorow they are literally only after money don’t care about the customers anymore very very sad

Worst customer service and they have started to rip-off customers. Been with them for 4 years. They were good when they were Kounta. Once lightspeed they double the subscription from $60 to $120. And now they are charging for not using their payment system. They charged me $319 dollar for not using their payment terminal. Its like charging customer for not buying product. I will be unsubscribing their service from next billing cycle.

This platform would have to be the most unstable platform I have used. Been in retail business for 25 years, Bachelor of Business in Accounting & 5 years accounting experience. The 24/7 support is the most useless support system encountered with issues taking a long time to resolve and in some case not getting resolved. Running 4 sites and converting early 2023 to a newplatform. I am not an advocate for Lightspeed. Was an awesome product when it was KOUNTA.

I'm updating this review from 1 star because the Lightspeed support has improved greatly. We cancelled subscription to some of the ads ons because of their stability and functionality but now have no issues with the POS platform.

We bought a cafe business a month ago, part of the sale was the Lightspeed POS. While they stated charging us for the service the next day after the settlement, they only transferred a small portion of what we earned since the settlement. We don’t know what happened to our money. Frustrated is understatement.

Highly not recommended
Been trying to call for a long period of time since days and I get no response.
I really have bad printer issues and the only thing they do is message.very very inconvenient

Without a doubt the most apaling service.

Kounta used to be a great business with exceptional service. Since being taken over by Lightspeed they have dropped the ball.

I must have rung for help 15 times, each time long wait and just an opportunity to leave a message for a call back. This has been going on for a period of 4 weeks now and still no return call.

Absolutely awful and incredibly disappointed. I have used Kounta previously when working for retailers, and I have been recommended Lightspeed (Kounta, Vend etc.) by my other small business owner friends.
When in contact with the Sales team, was promised features (omnichannel seamless e-commerce/POS integration), analytics, loyalty program and countless other features that sounded fantastic for my business needs!
Unfortunately after being on this platform for almost a month now, I will definitely be cancelling and looking elsewhere.

I will NOT be recommending Lightspeed to anyone else that I know who will need to use a retail POS.

Lightspeed are quick to sell you features, give you a good pitch, give you a good deal (price is competitive compared to other POS on the market), and quick to take your money/payment/sign you up.

What you DON'T get is:
- Support (Leaves you to reach out to their support team 24/7 for every small thing because their setup tutorials don't work)
- Features (Nothing they promise you works - see above: tutorials to set up yourself don't even work).
- POS that works (Headache and time consuming/not working product, even messed up my Shopify e-commerce store inventory in the process of product migration/integration).

Time is money when you're a small business owner, the lack of support and product features promised is appalling. To other business owners - save yourself the headache and look elsewhere.

Lightspeed Kounta is the wrong product for us and I am sorry we wasted so much time and money on trying to implement it. My team is now spending an eternity cleaning up the mess that has been created by Kounta

Initially staff members were helpful and the setup was very quick and efficient. Had lots of support. We tried setting up the eftpos terminal and had many complications and waited a whole month to get the terminal set up. After going back and forth for the whole month and being told that it would be sorted out, nothing was done. Refusing to compensate for our losses and the account was downgraded without any notification. It was then impossible to get any support from anyone in Australia as all matters regarding support was provided from overseas. Very unprofessional with a lack of communication between staff members in different departments. A very unreliable POS system.

The system is great. Easy to use and the support is fantastic. Chatting with the techs usually solves a problem in 15 mins or less. Good purchase and happy with the product!

Lightspeed is honestly incredible! Everything about it is so user friendly.
The customer service and support you receive as an account holder is outstanding. I have been so impressed with the whole experience and recommend it to everyone.
If you are lucky enough to have Jake Hawkins as your account manager you will experience such a personal, transparent approach and will feel as though you are working along side a friend. The account manages genuinely care about your business and want to work with you to find ways to add value to your business, its really refreshing!

Love how helpful and always available Lightspeed's customer care team is. Our account manager, Joel, is incredible, we really could not possibly run our business without him. Thank you, so so much!

Overall it was a great experience from start to finish. Manager assigned to me was Jeron Daniel who was impeccable and highly skilled in his field which gave me a great support thru overall process. Thanks Jeron

Highly recommended!
The customer support is next level! These guys organised my eftpos, POS setup, integrations and everything was ready to rock and roll! Super professional and amazing communication!

Bec Simmons was such a great help and made the process of transitioning an easy one. Both her and Christian Rommen are both lovely people, and were a pleasure to work with. Can’t recommend them enough. I am more than happy to go through this process again with both of them, and would recommend any of my client to Lightspeed (Kounta).

Great easy to use system that all the staff have taken to well. A little disappointing that some of the basic things that would be helpful are not on the base package i.e. Table plan, setting discounts. Overall great system that is easy to use both back office and front of house.

After years of trial and error with several point of sales systems we managed to find the right solution for our business. It has everything required to have our takeaway running smoothly on a day to day basis. Staff members we're able to adapt with minimal training. Natasha Baer was a tremendous help and an absolute pleasure to deal with making the transition. Highly recommended.

Starting my business has been a success and a whole lot easier with lightspeed. From the get go I’ve received ongoing support and further training when needed, my account manager has been so wonderful and a great help every step of the way. Every week I am still learning new ways to improve my business. Lightspeed is a great platform and point of sale, easy to use and efficient. I have been able to run and access all areas of my business, which enables me to help grow as a business. Very happy that I chose lightspeed.