Avoid Signature Systems, Inc. PDQ

We made an initial complaint with the BBB (Washington DC/Eastern PA) in March, 2008 regarding this matter(Complaint Tracking Number: CC8-8E7B53F48B-BA1038EE902EDA3-0D). We have filed this second complaint with the same BBB (34323-A1E0B-794DA-48533-27392-5AA78-81) approximately one month later, because the problems we initially complained of (and have been complaining about to Signature Systems for approximately one year) have only worsened.

We purchased a point of sale computer system from Signature Systems in January 2007. We paid $25,000 for it. It has yet to work properly and Signature Systems has yet to fix the problems we are having. This point of sale computer system is crippling our business and has failed to work properly from the day it was installed.

Signature Systems responded to our initial complaint by stating that they were addressing the problem and that the computer system they sold us was a "custom" system, which apparently was their justification for the computer system continuously (daily) failing to do what it is supposed to do. In April, 2008 I confirmed in a conversation with Rob Burgess, one of Signature Systems technicians familiar with this matter, that there is nothing different from our computer system than any other system it sells, and the computer system we received was not "customized" in any manner.

The computer system they sold us fails on a daily basis. The computer systems' primary function is to record sales and track pizza delivery. It fails to do this on a daily basis and is no more useful than the $200 cash register that we replaced with this system. More importantly, this systems continuous falures interfere with our ability to accurately report sales tax (and therefore we pay more than necessary) and generally to know what we have sold each day.

Further, Mike Reineker, the salesman that sold us the computer system, told me on April 15th that they were sending us a new server via UPS overnight service because they believe the problems with our system are due to "hardware problems". We still have not received this new computer on April 28th.

Further, in our store we sell over 3000 grocery items, which, like any grocery store, are scanned by bar code into the computer at the point of sale. These scanners fail regularly, also. While Signature Systems may not manufacture these hardware items, they sold them to us and we were told they were "under warranty" for one year. They have been replaced multiple times in the past year. When the scanners fail we cannot sell groceries other than by typing into the computer system a written description and a price for each product. Even with only a handful of groceries, this takes 5 minutes to do. Our customers cannot wait in line for a half an hour, and they will not. Signature Systems was notified, on a daily basis and at least ten days ago, that both of our scanners were not functioning. We just received replacement scanners on April 26th. The replacement scanners Signature Systems sent do not work and they have dirt on them (more likely rotting food). This is unacceptable, not to mention absolutely disgusting.

We are forced to call Signature Systems service for help everyday due to problems with the functioning of the computer system. They are either unable or unwilling to fix the system that we paid $25,000 for.

We have made every effort to resolve this matter without legal action and in order to avoid further disruption of our business, without success. We are in the process of purchasing a new computer system (another $25,000)because we cannot afford to continue losing business and tying up resources in dealing with Signature Systems failure. We are also filing a lawsuit against Signature Systems for damages to our business including restitution of the amounts we paid for their failed product.