Upserve Review: Fees, Comparisons, Complaints, & Lawsuits
(855) 664-3887 A Restaurant Merchant Services Provider
Upserve is a merchant account, point-of-sale, and marketing services provider for U.S. restaurants. The company was launched in 2009 and rebranded itself as Upserve in March 2016. It also acquired Breadcrumb POS in May 2016 and the restaurant inventory management software SimpleOrder in 2018. In April 2019, Upserve announced the appointment of Kendra Tucker as its Chief Revenue Officer. Tucker had previously been employed as the Director of Go-to-Market at Vista Consulting Group, a subsidiary of Vista Equity Partners, which holds a managing stake in Upserve.
In 2020, Lightspeed purchased Upserve, though it continues to operate the company under its own brand.
Upserve Payment Processing
Upserve processes all debit and credit cards for restaurants. Their services include EMV card readers and swipers, POS systems, restaurant management tools, gift and loyalty programs, mobile processing, and more. Upserve now requires merchants to use its payment processing service in order to have access to its robust data analytics features.
Upserve Location and Ownership
Upserve is a registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., in Concord, California, and is located at 10 Dorrance St, Providence, Rhode Island 02903. Sheryl Hoskins is listed as the CEO of Upserve.
Upserve Review Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: Upserve offers three plans. Their Core ($59/month), Pro ($199.00/month), and Pro Plus Plans ($359/month) each charge a transaction fee of $2.49 plus $0.15 across each plan.
- Complaints & Service: Upserve complaints number approximately 20 on public complaints forums.
- BBB Rating: Upserve has an “A+” rating and has received 17 complaints and 51 reviews in the past 3 years. The company has been accredited by the Better Business Bureau since 2010.
- Sales & Marketing: Upserve does not appear to hire independent sales representatives and has not received any complaints about its sales practices.
Upserve Customer Reviews
Here's What Their Clients Say
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Total Online Complaints | 10+ |
| Live Customer Support | Yes |
| Most Common Complaint | N/A |
Low Complaint Total
We are currently able to locate approximately 20 Upserve complaints, and a couple accuse the company of being a scam or a ripoff. Common themes among complainants include hidden fees and unavailable or unhelpful customer service. Some of these complaints received responses from company representatives that seem to have resolved the merchants’ issues satisfactorily. If you have your own Upswerve complaint to make, please do so in the comments below.
Upserve Lawsuits and Fines
We have not found any outstanding class-action lawsuits or FTC complaints filed against Upserve. Dissatisfied merchants who wish to pursue a non-litigious course of action against the company should consider reporting it to the relevant supervisory organizations.
Upserve Customer Service Options
The company has a dedicated support website that hosts a live chat feature and 24/7 phone and email support. These contact options are close to what we expect from top-rated merchant accounts for great customer service. Given the company’s low complaint total and robust support options, we are awarding Upserve an “A” in this category at this time.
We have located a single Upserve customer service phone number:
(855) 664-3887 – Toll-Free Support
Upserve also offers two customer service email addresses at [email protected] and [email protected]
Upserve Online Ratings
Here's How They Rate Online
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Product & Service Complaints | 13 |
| Billing & Collection Complaints | 4 |
| Advertising & Sales Complaints | 0 |
| Guarantee & Warranty Complaints | 0 |
| Delivery Complaints | 0 |
Under 20 Complaints
Upserve has been an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau since 2010. As of this review, the company has an “A+” rating with the BBB and has had 17 complaints filed against it in the last 36 months. 13 complaints relate to a product or service issue while the other 4 stemmed from issues with billing or collections. 7 of these 13 complaints were resolved to the satisfaction of the merchant. The remaining 6 were resolved to the dissatisfaction of the merchant or received no final reply.
What Merchants Say
In addition to those 17 complaints, the company has also received 51 informal reviews on its BBB profile. 44 of those reviews are positive while only 6 are negative in tone. The most recent negative review details problems with customer service and the server:
Just converted to Upserve from Toast Implementation support and customer service are horrible, Second weekend system went off line Friday and Saturday night of a holiday weekend.
This merchant would be better served by one of our top-rated processors for customer service.
An “A+” Performance Overall
In light of the company’s low complaint total and resolution ratio, we agree with the BBB’s rating as of this update.
Upserve Fees, Rates & Costs
A Closer Look at The Contract
| Item | Result | >
|---|---|
| Flat Rate | 2.49% + $0.15 |
| Core Plan Fee | $59 Per Month |
| Core Plan Additional Terminal Fee | $60 Per Month |
| Pro Plan Fee | $199 Per Month |
| Pro Plan Additional Terminal Fee | $50 Per Month |
| Pro Plus Plan Fee | $359 Per Month |
| Pro Plus Additional Terminal Fee | $40 Per Month |
| Online Ordering Fee | $59 Per Month (Core Plan Only) |
| Inventory Fee | $99 Per Month (Core Plan Only) |
| Early Termination Fee | $300 |
Three Pricing Plans
Upserve now offers three pricing plans, each of which is intended for different sizes of restaurants. Each plan includes a monthly subscription charge, a rate of 2.49% plus $0.15, as well as a free terminal with a fixed price for any additional terminals.
The “Core” Plan
The “Core” plan costs $59 per month and $60 per additional terminal. The “Core” Plan also includes Upserve Workforce, Upserve Marketing, and a live mobile app free of charge. Optional add-ons offered by this plan include Upserve Online Ordering ($59/month) and Upserve Inventory ($99/month).
The “Pro” Plan
The “Pro” plan costs $199 per month and $50 per additional terminal. The “Pro” Plan also includes Upserve Workforce, Upserve Marketing, Upserve Online Ordering (for a limited time), Upserve Inventory, Upserve Loyalty, and a live mobile app free of charge.
The “Pro Plus” Plan
The company’s final and most comprehensive package, the “Pro Plus” plan costs $359 per month and $40 per additional terminal. The “Pro” plan also includes Upserve Workforce, Upserve Marketing, Upserve Inventory, Upserve Online Ordering (for a limited time) Upserve Loyalty, and a live mobile app free of charge. The “Pro Plus” plan also includes custom reporting, data API, and enterprise account management tools aimed at larger scale companies.
Previously Listed Rate Quote
In general, Upserve rates and fees appear to scale up appropriately for the services it provides. Upserve is probably not a good fit for most small restaurant locations and single-register shops, as these locations likely won’t make enough use of Upserve’s features to justify its monthly cost. Upserve’s previously advertised per-transaction fee of interchange plus $0.15 is very competitive for the industry, but the removal of this rate since our last review could hint at more expensive payment processing fees.
Upserve Contract Terms
Upserve provides surprisingly little information about its standard contract length, early termination fees, PCI compliance fees, monthly minimum fees, and other potential fees. We therefore cannot clarify whether Upserve’s contract terms are competitive with the cheapest merchant accounts. We have located one source that mentions a three-year contract with an early termination fee of $300, but we have not found any Upserve complaints that mention excessive costs. Merchants should be sure to inquire about these potential costs before signing up. If you have any knowledge of the exact fees and contract terms that accompany Upserve’s merchant account, please leave that information in the comment section of this review.
We also encourage merchants to check out our list of the providers of the best merchant accounts.
Upserve Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs
Should You Work For Them?
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Employs Independent Resellers | No |
| Advertises Deceptive Rates | No |
| Discloses All Important Terms | No |
Upserve Sales Approach
Upserve appears to market itself primarily through telemarketing, referral partnerships, and its website. There is no indication at this time that the company employs independent sales agents or partners with ISOs. We are currently able to locate a few Upserve complaints that cite hidden fees, poor customer service, and a handful of employee complaints describing a “hiring mill” type of environment. It is unclear at the moment how this compares to our list of the best credit card processors.
Upserve Pricing
The Upserve website is navigable and informative. At the time of our last update, its “Pricing” page quoted the rate for Upserve’s in-house payments service as interchange plus $0.15, which was fairly low, and we could not find any evidence that this rate was misleadingly quoted. As of this update, the “Pricing” page has been modified to now simply say “transparent fixed rate” beneath its “Payment Processing” section. We will therefore assign the company an “A” rating in this category for the time being. Upserve’s pricing options are one reason it has become a leading provider for businesses within the restaurant industry.
Our Upserve Review Summary
Our Final Thoughts
A Good Option for Restaurant Owners
Upserve rates as a reliable merchant services provider according to our rating criteria. The company is showing few complaints online and appears to offer simple, competitive contract terms with adequate customer support. Upserve’s overall rating may be subject to change as it continues to build a reputation among merchants. For now, restaurant business owners may want to consider opting for a top-recommended restaurant merchant account provider to receive the most competitive pricing and contract terms.
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Kris
Don’t go with Upserve if you value your time, money, or mental state. Absolutely atrocious company. Read their BBB reviews for more insight.
Nikki
I have had two restaurants with Upserve and Lightspeed, and regretted the decision 6 months into our contract. The customer service and support is really horrible, they expect you to troubleshoot printer outages caused by the backend of the software thru “printer support articles” in the middle of high volume dinner service. They make an incredible amount of revenue off of our business (both were doing $5M a year) and did nothing to support our business the length of the contract. We are finally finishing our contracts out, and I am grateful I negotiated 36 months instead of the 60 month contract they were trying to push our management into doing. If this helps any restaurant owner out there, you are welcome. There are some great POS companies out there, with real support, and a real commitment to small businesses.
Cory Royer
We have been a good customer with Upserve and simply wanted to discuss a new contract. Customer Service is nearly zero when you need to talk with someone from the contract department or even our own representative. Since early July 2022 — Multiple calls and emails with promises from Upserve of a return call, yet no. No response from Upserve. On my 5th attempted phone call on July 29th, the person who answered the phone shared with me that my account representative did not want to take my call, there was no one else to talk to and instead wanted to return my call in about a week. I explained how I had been lead down that trail of belief before and that if I wasn’t able to talk with someone today, we would be completely stopping payments with Upserve and moving to another vendor. The representative put me on hold a second time only to come back and share that my account representative still would not come to the phone. We have stopped payments and have moved on. The strategy apparently is to ignore their customers.
Marita Jager
We signed up with Upserve January 1st, 2021 – a brand new restaurant. I did so much research because I wanted a system that was really productive and efficent with great customer service.
We have been going through an impossible situation. My biggest problem is the lack of customer service. I feel like I’m talking to a black hole. Many times there is an hour wait to talk to someone – luckily they will call you if you opt for that once someone is available so you don’t have to wait on the phone. But of course most things are urgent when it comes to the POS.
Our POS system completely stopped working from May 24th to June 6th. We were finally able to run credit cards after two days of writing the credit card numbers down by hand so we could input them once the system was back up. There are NO local reps to help you. While they have a 24 hour phone line, their technicians are not working 24 hours, so only when we are open are they able to help us – from about 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., but for some reason the phone help person did not relay that to me, so I came in three days in a row at 7 a.m. to try to work through our problems while we were not open, yet the phone help line attendants did not bother to tell me that until the fourth day.
For 13 days all the credit card we ran didn’t go into the system – well some did some didn’t – so I had to take pictures of every credit card receipt – 1000s, and then send them by e-mail to upserve. My real complaint is that no one has contacted me letting me know they did receive the credit card receipts, even though I e-mailed and called and asked if they recieved them all, so that I could have some piece of mind. One day only $4 were recorded in their system on a day we rang over $6000. I tallied up all the credit cards and then ran a report of all the reciept that went through and those that didn’t and determined that upserved owed us over $32,000. Yet no one would acknowledge the amount. I think that’s the worst part – not knowing what’s going on.
Now a month later upserve is charging the customers for their reciepts that didn’t go through so we are gettig really angry phone calls putting a bad taste in our customers mouths after we worked so hard to set up a new business and get a great reputation. Our reveiws for our restarant are fantastic – but I’m very scared about what’s going to happen now with 1000s of customers getting what they believe to be frodulent charges from our restaurant.
Communication is key – and their is none from this company. I was on the phone for hour after hour and finally asked the service phone person if he could work on it without me on the phone and call me back when he had some news. He said yes. He never called me back. Several days of this with no one calling me back I finally got an e-mail from someone saying they are the manager and would be handling my case – but she never called me even after I requested that she do several times. Then she wrote that not only do they not make outgoing phone calles – as soon I you hang up with them, the phone call ends and they take the next income call. It was a little baffeling that the phone service person simply said ok that he would work on my case and call me back, when he knew once I hung up he would have to take the next incoming call.
I’ve asked to be let out of my contract – that’s all I want – and the only response I got from the manger via e-mail was that it would cost us $27,000 . It’s just not acceptable.