UPDATE 2/13/2019: Breadcrumb POS was acquired by Upserve in May 2016. We will no longer update this review. For up-to-date information about this company, see our Upserve review.
Restaurant POS System
Upserve POS (upserve.com/platform/restaurant-pos/), formerly known as Breadcrumb POS, is a point-of-sale app designed for the restaurant industry. Originally designed by Groupon, it replaced Groupon Payments, providing a revamped version of that earlier service with several added features like offline data storage and enhanced analytics.
Now Known as Upserve POS
Breadcrumb was acquired by Upserve (formerly Swipely) in May 2016, and the company has since fully branded it as a product within Upserve's overall lineup of services, including renaming it to Upserve POS. Upserve POS offers tablet-based hardware and software for table-side payments, and the company doesn’t seem to enforce any service length commitments. Sheryl Hoskins is listed as the CEO of Upserve.
Upserve POS Review Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: Upserve POS offers multiple pricing plans with month-to-month agreements and interchange-plus pricing.
- Complaints & Service: Upserve POS (as Breadcrumb) has received more than 25 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: Upserve has an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received two complaints in the last three years.
- Sales & Marketing: Upserve POS hires independent sales agents but has not received any complaints about its sales practices.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With Upserve POS
La Esquina mexican grill
I Would Never Give this company a shot, they are one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with. They lied their behinds off to make a sale, and the demo version they use to entice customers is not what you get! They could not even name each “till” so cooks had no idea which till was submitting the order! When we average 300 to 400 transactions a day per window, thats a huge problem! We lost customers, and revenue! Worse case is refunding! You have to jump through so many hoops to perfom a simple refund, only to be able to hand your customer receipt that their credit cards will not be charged! Then theres their customer service!!! Which does not exist! They want to charge you for services which they never complete like menu implementation and basic support when you complain from right outta the box! they never finished loading my menu, or help us with training, and or fixing basic issues we had. I would not recommend this company to my worst enemy or competition!!! Please stay away, its clear now why I see they have changed their names so many times. I cannot believe this company just takes your money and walks away….they need new support staff, and customer service reps.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Restaurant Merchant Accounts
Alex Ruwe
Always goes down.
Lindsay
We have had continuous problems in our restaurant with this system. It crashes constantly, customer service is terrible (we get no constructive answers and have never received a reply from our “case handler” who we have yet to speak to after 8 months) and it is not at all user friendly for the restaurant environment. Do yourself a favor and go fish for another option.
Mr. Rickyd
1 * Breadcrumb has a lot of catching up to do. Lack of support, customization and feedback among a myriad of issues. Even simple problems such as ticket readability is quite dreadful. Not very pleased with this product.
deb hutchinson
Horrible, horrible, horrible. No customer support AT ALL and the hardware is a nightmare.
—
Are you with Breadcrumb? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
Naomi Miller
BREADCRUMBS via GROUPON is the worst customer is apparently going bankrupt and I can’t get my money…..over $1,000 they owe me for credit card purchases due my business. I’ve been calling my account representative Kailey @ groupon and have been informed she can’t help. She gives me an email that I have been emailing for now over 7 times with NO REPLY. I’m a small business and these funds are my operating funds so basically I’m shut down till GROUPON pays me what they are holding. This is outrageous and I can’t believe I’m the only merchant going thru this turmoil. Not only do they make money from fees and basically rape the merchant with the uneven split….where you lose money as the merchant, now they advertise their credit card company BREADCRUMBS that is apparently bankrupt and not paying merchants funds owed? WTF! My Next call is to an attorney then every outlet I can reach to complain about this FRAUD! As a “TOP” MERCHANT I thought I’d be treated with a little respect since they’ve made over 15K off my small business alone last year. Very disappointed with Kailey, Groupon and BREADCRUMBS.
—
Are you with Breadcrumb? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
Marilyn
Naomi, I’ve had similar bad experiences with them. Making numerous calls, sending emails about complaints. There customer service has plummeted drastically and I have to stay on top of them to get anything accomplished. Very frustrating especially when they reduce our fees and keep most of the money. They should be forced to shut down as they are killing new and small business and giving us more work instead of helping us out.
—
Are you with Breadcrumb? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
Picking up the Crumbs
Used Breadcrumb for our school’s non-profit program. Terrible customer service aka NO Customer Service. Treated us like we were lower than scum from the get-go. The iPad fob does not work well. And, they Turned off payment transfers and held $$ back for months. Ridiculous company. Will never use them or recommend them again. They are now in the restaurant business – good luck restaurant owners but you’re better off anywhere else.
We are now with square and they seem to have it together.
Laia Borges
Breadcrumb=Groupon=Ripp Off. Two months working with them. Told them we would go through another credit card processor but they never changed it. Now it turns out they only assist payment issues by email –go ahead and grow a beard while waiting. Meanwhile, charging whatever they want for credit card transactions that we didn’t agree on. Looking to different POS options. Not recommended. Ever.
Ashley
Stay away from this company. I am with everyone who complained above.Their customer service is non existent when I am actually working and need them. I was promised weekend support and “after hours” in reality there is no support. Not all businesses work 9-5 5 days a week and even when you need support to their poor credit card processing- you are out of luck. Breadcrumb is a horrific company. Trusting Breadcrumb with my business was worst business decision I have ever made.
Jeff Jones
I have tried to stick by Breadcrumb for over a year…..they keep trying but good intentions only get you so far….sooner or later, you have to deliver and they just cant seem to get the damn thing to work. After much hoopla, they created this offline mode that was supposed to save us from the internet or cloud going down. But tonight we got our first real test, as all of Breadcrumbs system went down. So we assumed the new offline mode would save the day….ooops…..Can you say Sh!tshow!!!! Dont even think about getting this POS system, no matter how much they tell you the problems are in the past, etc…..they just don’t seem to have people that know what they are doing. What a nitemare experience it has been….
Jeff
I would not recommend Breadcrumbs to anyone. We currently use it in our bar and are considering our other options. My main complaint is that it goes into offline mode frequently. This is not a problem with our wireless network. Also, when we have to call them about going offline or another issue, their customer support is atrocious. Most of the people I have spoken with have been knowledgeable and helpful, but the problem is that it takes forever to actually speak to one of them.
I’ll give an example of the most recent problem we had. Our system went into offline mode and we kept ringing credit card transactions. This was a global issue caused by a problem with Breadcrumb’s servers. Breadcrumbs advertises that transactions done while offline are stored, so that when it goes back online the credit cards can be run. That has worked for us in the past, but not this time. We had over 30 transactions stored that would not run, even after the iPad went back online.
They weren’t answering their phones during this outage – they just had a pre-recorded message saying to email them the signed cc receipt copies. I did so, and they claim that we will get the cards processed. But they told me that these processed transactions won’t show up in in my breadcrumbs reports. In short, I have no way of knowing if we even received this money. I had several questions for them during this outage that I couldn’t get answered. Essentially there were transactions with different statuses. I needed to ask what the different status codes meant to make sure that we didn’t charge our customers twice, etc. But their support staff wouldn’t answer the phone. At one point I waited on hold for 30 minutes, only to have them send my call to voice-mail. They simply don’t answer the phone when you really need them to.
Clint
I agree with all of those other complaints, this company is best avoided. Too bad I did not do enough research b/c this company is a joke.
Firstly, their website is a mess. It is very hard to actually figure out how to sign up for their service. I had to contact customer support for a link to their webform. Also, their fees have gone up. the fees are now 1.99% + 15c for swipe, and 2.49%+ 15c for manual. They also advertise that they sell a verifone vx5200 ($150), but when I asked if it was compliant with the new standards that will take place in 2015, I was told no. So it will basically be a paperweight by next year.
And last but not least, after completing the registration process and validating my merchant account etc. I was met with some news. Apparently this company withholds manually keyed payments for 30 days! No, that is not a typo. And I was informed that after 6 months they will evaluate my account and possibly change this hindrance. I am not some first-timer, I have had my own business for over 10 years and have been using cc payment systems for that long without a single complaint, chargeback, or anything else. And yet breadcrumb has determined my account is too risky to allow next day deposits.
Well guess what. none of this policy was mentioned when signing up. I feel mislead, and I sure am not going to use a system that has a mandatory 30 day hold policy like this.
Ray Cattaneo
As a business owner for over 8 years, what breadcrumb has just done to us is absolutely ridiculous and goes against any morals towards business owners.
I was contacted by them because our “weekly volume” was too high. They then stated “for multiple reasons” we will no longer be able to process. I have zero refunds, zero negative reviews about my business, and have ample sales volume.
Not only did they shut off my processing ability within 24hrs…they basically left me hanging to find another processor within a day.
Ra
I would strongly NOT recommend Breadcrumbs payment.
I was originally contacted by Groupon payments, now Breadcrumb payments, selling their new credit card services. After hours of phone and email conversation and being told there would be a website terminal available in the summer of 2013, I decided to go with Breadcrumb payments.
Well, unfortunately the sales person gave me a bunch of bull to sell me their services. There is no website terminal available then, now or in the near future. I decided to stay with Breadcrumbs because of their good rates.
What’s frustrating is they turn off your service if you do not make any transactions in 30 days. The sales person knew that my clients pay by check and Paypal, so it easily could be 30 days between transactions if I were to use their services. And especially since there is NO website terminal available.
Just this month, I had a transaction, but may account was turned off. After a week, I realized my funds had not been automatically deposited. I emailed Breadcrumbs and they replied with my account had been turned off, they will release the funds, but they have decided to close my account, permanently. I asked for a reason, they said they did not legally need to give one. There is no phone number for this department, just a gatekeeper named Will S, who felt the need to close an account for no reason.
I don’t really need Breadcrumbs, but it’s the principle of the wrongful closure of my account.
I make $70 an hour and Will probably makes $15-$20 an hour, so I guess I can’t complain.
I do not recommend Breadcrumb payments. You do get what you pay for.
Jay
Very sorry I went with Breadcrumb. Terms were attractive and setup process was easy. But as soon as I accepted a payment for a larger-than-usual amount ($4500 in this case) the transaction was denied and my ability to accept payments was immediately terminated. After phone and email conversations with Breadcrumb I agreed to let them hold back 20% of all payments for 60 days. Apart from the added bookkeeping hassle, this was tolerable. But when one customer disputed charges totaling $565, Breadcrumb once again terminated my ability to collect payments, in spite of the money they were holding in reserve. And in spite of the fact that I provided ample documentation that the charges in question were authentic and valid. …An added quirk of the Breadcrumb system is that when they “turn off payments” — which they do without any advance notice — you are unable to access your own transaction history. Essentially, your account just disappears. SUMMARY: Breadcrumb is not merchant-friendly. They will authorize your account, and then in a bait-and-switch manner, add onerous rules and conditions, while frequently interrupting your ability to conduct business, without any notice. Not good.
Geoffrey
We posted the text of our prior post on Breadcrumb’s Facebook page and received an email the next day informing us that our ticket had been escalated because of our post and that they were attempting to solve our issue. They asked if the merchandise had already been delivered to the customer and after we explained to them that the customer took immediate possession of the merchandise at the time of the credit card charge, they decided to reverse their 60-day hold decision and release our revenue.
Breadcrumb was much more responsive and acted quickly after we publicly complained. So, it could just be a case of the squeaky wheel getting the grease or more likely, the public complaint called attention to the issue to more pro-customer management at the company. Either way, our account transfer was reestablished on 12-16-13 after having been turned off on 12-12-13. Of course, your mileage may vary.
Judy
Breadcrumb got wise, and has now disabled public Facebook posts.
There is something very fishy with Breadcrumb. Like many others, we experienced having our deposits “turned off” supposedly due to inactivity. We simply did not conduct any sales for two months, as is the nature of our business. Had we ever been informed of this “rule” (which is not written anywhere) we would have chosen another provider from the beginning.
The worst, and in my opinion, unforgivable part of it is, when they arbitrarily “turn off” your deposits, they don’t even send a simple e-mail to tell you. If their action is in the interest of fraud prevention, as they claim, they could just as easily send a simple email, asking you to verify your status with them: “Just checking in…are you in a slow sales period, or has your card swiper been stolen?”
But why would they set their program to automatically turn off deposits, instead of setting their program to automatically send an email? Money. Of course. This is where it gets scary, and could VERY easily ruin your business.
Here’s what happened to us: We run an Estate Sale business, so we don’t necessarily have credit card sales every month. We did not conduct any Estate Sales in November or December of 2014. To “protect us” from fraud, Breadcrumb turned off our deposits on January 9, 2015 (they provided this date to me after my inquiry; we had absolutely no idea at the time.) When we resumed having sales in March of 2015, and every month after that through October, we swiped hundreds of card sales totally $19,000.00. The cards swiped just fine. The money was charged to the customer just fine. And the money just piled up in Breadcrumbs accounts, just fine. The money simply WASN’T SENT TO OUR BANK ACCOUNT, as it had for the past year, and as we trusted it was continuing. No messages, no red flags. Our reported Breadcrumb “Sales Totals” perfectly matched the sales totals on our phone apps. We guarantee payment to our Estate Sale client within 10 days, so we combine our Breadcrumb sales amount with the cash and checks we received, subtract our commission, and immediately send a check to the client. It is an absolute miracle that we never bounced a check during this time.
When I initially contacted Breadcrumb, after realizing our deposits were not being made, and they informed me there was $19,000 sitting there, I asked, “Doesn’t that cause some kind of red flag, or show up on some report that someone there would notice?” He answered, “No, it just stays there until someone asks about it.”
Yes, I failed to notice that the Breadcrumb deposits were NOT appearing on my bank statements. They used to show up under “other credits” but I simply did not notice when they stopped appearing. In a small (two person) business, there isn’t always a person who can reconcile bank statements monthly. We reconcile during slower sales times (dead of winter.)
So Breadcrumbs pockets enjoy our cash flow, until WE notice they’re not sending money, and ask them for it. They further show their shadowy side by only providing “customer service” (to you) through email. Their answers are brief, vague, and veiled. Of course, if you need technical assistance (so they can help you process a card for YOUR customer, well that’s available live, and 24/7.)
I truly believe there is something very unethical, if not illegal, going on with this company. Every complaint I have seen about them has a common thread: withholding your deposits, with no notice, for a variety of “reasons” that were NEVER disclosed, even in the finest print.
Geoffrey
Beware of Groupon’s Breadcrumb Payments if you value the timely transfer of your revenue.
Breadcrumb reserves the right, at their sole discretion, to confiscate your revenue and hold it for 60 days and they don’t hesitate to do so.
If your business is fortunate enough to generate a larger than average sale, Groupon will turn off your accounts transfers and send you a lengthy information request which you must respond to if you hope to have any chance of receiving your revenue from them.
The initial round of requests is as follows:
1. A detailed description of your product/service.
2. What is the average selling price of your product/service?
3. What is the estimated daily/weekly/monthly volume for your business?
4. Will you be processing card present or card not present transactions? (If you decide to process both types, can you describe the business circumstances under which you will use each?)
5. The duration of your business since it was formed.
6. Previous processing statements or business history to confirm the volume.
Subsequent requests include copies of signed receipts, sales invoices and past transactions.
Effectively, you’ll be required to explain how your entire business works and lay bare all of your finances as your grovel for Groupon to transfer your revenue into your bank account (something they claim they’ll do next business day on their website) .
However, even after you supply Groupon with eveything they request and beg them to return your revenue, you may (as was our case) be told that they are still going to hold your money for 60 days so they can be absolutely certain that no charge-backs or disputes will occur.
Groupon wants to be your partner as long as they can grab a piece of your revenue with each credit card charge you accept, but at the slightest sign of risk, they grab your money and hide, leaving you and your business dangling in the wind with your merchandise out the door and your revenue locked in Groupon’s bank.
In our case, the questioned sale and confiscated revenue were from a well known customer whose credit worthiness, reputation and standing in the community are beyond reproach. Other than the transaction being larger than Groupn’s arbitrarily set maximum monthly transfer limit, there was no basis for suspecting any issue with the transaction.
Why should we have to beg our credit card processor for our revenue? Why should we have to ask our credit card processor’s permission to make a sale? If you’re as tired as we are of having business service providers, like Groupon prove themselves to be providers of ill-liquidity, frustration and disappointment, vote with your wallet and take your credit card processing business away from them as we eagerly have.
Chris
I would highly suggest NOT using the Breadcrumb service.
I recently launched a new business venture and decided to use Breadcrumb for payment processing due to the lower rate than Square.
Upon running my first transaction I was contacted by them with like 10+
questions they wanted answered for verification, including business
documents, invoices, etc.
I spent 2 hours compiling the requested information only to receive the response “Your payments processing has been turned off.”.
Their reasoning? I processed a charge that was not directly related to my business, however IT WAS RELATED. Maybe it was the amount? I don’t know.
I asked numerous times if there was anything I could do to reinstate my processing to which they replied no. Now I am stuck with a business who lacks the ability to process credit card payments until my Square reader arrives in the mail in 7-10 business days.
Either way I had to REFUND my customer as they would not release the funds to me, and rebill them via another method. I cannot even begin to explain how bad they made my business look to this customer. As a result I actually lost the client.
If you value your business and your clients I would highly suggest steering clear of Breadcrumb.
Vic S
Stay Away From Breadbrumb POS & Breadcrumb Pro.
The system is the worst. No support, reports don’t work, no one ever calls you back. Seriously, the company is a joke.
I regret spending any money on a system with that company. I agree with everything negative that is written here.
You wonder why the stock is going down the drain and the company is going out of business.