Complaint Review: Aldelo Restaurant Software

 Thanks Aldelo, your new annual extortion plan is now $600. It was $500 when this complaint was created. Way to respond to consumer feedback. Don't say you like to hear the negatives then call them lies. I either pay that extortion fee or I cannot not accept chip cards. Now that the government has shifted the liability onto the business owners I have to decide if I want customers or aldelo to steal from me. What does their manager say? "I am sorry you feel that way". POS system is less than a year old and Aldelo says I can either give them $600 or deal with it. They got so much from me this year just in purchasing the software but clearly not enough for them to treat me with respect. They justify it by saying, we charge that much because we can. Same thing the mafia would tell restaurant owners before their restaurant would burn down. Aldelo equals legal extortion.

I bought Aldelo through the recommendation of a fellow restaurant owner. In my attempt to get the system setup and running, I went through about a month and half of trial and error. I did not use their support AT ALL during this time. When I finally got everything working on my own (including dealing with multiple language issues from both Aldelo/Windows/printing, and figuring out the software's idiosyncracies, etc...), I decided to wipe out the 2 stations one last time and build them according to my final configuration.

Big mistake! I unknowingly used up the license activations and had to call their support for 'forgiveness'. The 'tech support' rep was very quick in answering the phone but did not want to forgive my activations. He refused to believe that I had used up the activations over this time period... (go figure, maybe everyone else that buys Aldelo are technical gurus). And since I was out of their 30-day free support period, he refused to even investigate into why my activations were all used up unless I signed up for their support contract for $500/year, (or $1.35/day, as he sold it, but you must pay for the entire year up front). After about 20 minutes discussing this matter and the rep constantly basically saying 'sign up for the support and we'll do this for you, I hung up the phone in frustration and despair.

Great. I just spent a couple months of my time and over $1000 on Aldelo software and here I was, a grown man with an MBA pretty much begging for forgiveness from some guy that claims to be a technical expert but is really a salesman. And on top of that, my restaurant was opening in under a month. I immediately decided to scrap the Aldelo setup and writedown the expense. Even if it was running smoothly and problems arise in the future, I did not want to deal with their company anymore.

Then I called a few local POS installers and found one that offered very competitive pricing and could get me up and running within a couple of weeks. This installer also was an authorized Aldelo installer. He carefully explained/contrasted the systems they offer and I ended up going with a POSiTouch system. He said that they try to steer consumers away from Aldelo because of their 'lack of quality control', but will install these systems anyways if that's what the customer wants. After hearing my case, this installer offered to reuse the computers I bought for Aldelo in order to reduce my cost of the POSiTouch system.

For anybody considering Aldelo POS, before you pull that trigger, PLEASE do yourself a favor and consider other POS solutions as well. If you're not aware of Aldelo's 'hidden' costs, you will find out. Want your Aldelo POS to take credit cards? That's another $700 software in addition to your licenses.

Dear Restaurant and Bar owners,

I regret purchasing Aldeo software for my bars  .... I finally had enough and am seeking other software companies that don't rip customers off like Aldelo.  I don't typically waste my time with such reviews but in this case I make an exception.

Do not purchase Aldelo software.  You will be locked into their scam for paying the $595 support fee on the top of other fees every year -- even for new additions/license. Technically, they are supposed to offer installation assistant but their are not! You can't transfer, resell, or chanege even the name of the your restaurant/bar without having to pay a fee.

My advice to you is to avoid Aldelo completly.  If you have already purchsed Aldelo and are forced to sign up for the technical support, make it your mission to call their support line every day for any reason to make your moneys worth.  Call them if you have a headache. Call them if you are bored.  Call them if you just just want to complain to someone about your day.  BECAUSE THEY DESERVE IT.

I am so fed up with Aldelo I am looking to scrap my systems and purchase a new software.

Good Luck.

everything said before is true you cannot get anything done with out paying them $500.00 a year this is the new and inovated extortion.

At Aldelo Systems, we value our customers and business associates' comments, suggestions or complaints.  In order for a company to grow and enhance its operations, we need to hear the good and the bad, if any exists.  It is our goal to attempt to improve on all negatives and continue to excel on the positives.

However, false accusations or statements made against our company in an attempt to damage our reputation and product quality are not acceptable and do not serve the general public interest.

Aldelo Systems provides a very cost effective and simple to use software solution for the hospitality and payment processing industries.  Given that our products are software based, we as a company need to protect our intellectual property rights while still allowing as much transparency as possible for our licensed end users.  We are very open in our license registration and activation policies.  Our policy is posted on our corporate website clearly and is contained within our software EULA.

We regret that someone might have decided to alter the truth in an attempt to damage our reputation and good will for unknown reasons.   We believe that informed consumers will see through the false accusations and claims, and find our software licensing policies are in line with the industry and reasonable after reading our posted Licensing Registration and Activation Policies on our corporate website.

This article has many points we feel should be corrected.

Our Activation and Registration policy is clear and easy to view in both the End User License Agreement and on our website at http://www.aldelo.com/SupportResources/RegistrationActivationPolicies/tabid/387/Default.aspx

Both fully explain the activation policy and number of activations available. Aldelo does not deny the ability to use the licensed software as long as users adhere to the licensing agreement. Each license has four activations with the ability to have activations reviewed and forgiven after two years of use. Activations are intended to be used for upgrades of hardware and software or for changes needed to the local equipment. After two years of use, the activation can be reviewed and the number of activations increased. Few, if any, other companies offer this type of activation forgiveness to extend the life of the software to their users.

Activations are tied to major components in the operation environment. Changing things such as memory or network cards would not require use of activation.

Aldelo provides a list of certified hardware at www.Aldelo.com to help customers reduce the number of issues they may have and the need to use activations. Furthermore, Aldelo offers activation forgiveness for customers who use certified hardware but experience hardware issues.

We would encourage the author to perform better fact checking before publishing such an inaccurate statement.

If you have further concerns, please feel free to contact our management team at management@aldelo.com