25 Questions to Ask an Online Ordering Provider Before You Sign (UK Checklist)

Before you sign with an online ordering provider, get written answers to 25 questions covering total cost, contract and notice, data, app ownership, busy-night reliability, support, refunds, printers, delivery, integrations and leaving. The five we would ask first: the card rate, the minimum term and notice period, whether you can export customers yourself, whose developer account holds the app, and what you keep when you leave. Each question says why it matters, what a good answer looks like and how Aexir answers it.

Total cost

1. What will the first year cost, line by line?

Why it matters: card fees, delivery, hardware and app store accounts can outweigh the monthly fee. A good answer lists every invoice line, with VAT treatment. Aexir's lines:

Worked example (our arithmetic, not a client's figures): on Pro, 400 card orders a month averaging £22 pay 85p each in card fees (55p plus 30p): £340 a month. With the £50 plan and the £30 developer account, year one is £4,710 before VAT, couriers and hardware. Run the same sum for others with the price index.

2. What is the card rate, and how much of it do you keep?

Why it matters: card fees are usually a busy shop's biggest cost, and a margin can hide inside them. A good answer gives one written rate and the provider's share.

Aexir: 2.5% + 30p through Stripe on app and website orders, of which the pricing page says 1% + 10p is an Aexir platform contribution and the rest covers Stripe. Counter card payments go through a terminal you choose, because POS on the Go has no card reader of its own.

3. Is there a setup fee, and what does setup cover?

Why it matters: setup can be a one-off charge, a deposit or folded into a longer term. A good answer gives the amount, the work, the timeline and what is refundable.

Aexir: the team builds your menu and, on app plans, publishes the app; the setup page says most apps go live within a month of you sharing your branding. The price list does not state a setup fee: ask us.

Contract and notice

4. What is the minimum term, and does it renew automatically?

Why it matters: you sign as a business, and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 cancellation rights are for consumers, defined in regulation 4 as individuals acting wholly or mainly outside their trade (legislation.gov.uk, checked 29 October 2026), so there may be no cooling-off period. A good answer gives the term, the renewal rule and the date to act by.

Aexir: plans are priced by the month. Ask us for the contract term, renewal and notice in writing before you sign. The GloriaFood switch offer runs on a 12-month term.

5. How much notice do I give, and what is charged during it?

Why it matters: notice rules and clawed-back discounts decide what leaving costs. Get the days, where to send notice and every charge that survives cancellation.

Aexir: ask us for the notice terms in writing. The GloriaFood offer states its clawback: cancel before the 12 paid months finish and the three free months are charged (£90 Web or Starter, £120 Plus, £150 Pro, ex VAT).

6. Can prices rise during the contract?

Why it matters: a low price only helps if it holds. A good answer gives the notice of an increase and a penalty-free exit if you refuse it.

Aexir: prices are on the pricing page with the date they were checked. Ask us in writing what notice of a rise you would get.

Three providers' own published wording shows the detail to ask for:

Data ownership and export

7. Who controls the customer data, and what happens to it when we part?

Why it matters: a provider handling customers' details for you is your processor under UK GDPR, and the ICO says its contract must require it, at your choice, to delete or return the personal data at the end (ico.org.uk, checked 29 October 2026). A good answer is a data processing agreement saying so.

Aexir: the pricing page says "your customers, your data". Ask us for the data processing terms.

8. Can I export customers and orders myself?

Why it matters: a list you only get through support is not really yours. A good answer is a free, self-serve CSV export.

Aexir: CSV export from the sales dashboard on every plan. On Web and Pro (POS on the Go), also up to 92 days of orders from the till and a read-only owner data API.

9. Can I market to those customers?

Why it matters: under the ICO's soft opt-in you may email or text past buyers about similar products only if you offered a simple opt-out when collecting their details and in every message (ico.org.uk, checked 29 October 2026). Ask to see the checkout wording.

Aexir: app plans include push notifications and every plan has offers and promo codes; ask us for the checkout wording before email or text campaigns.

App ownership

10. Whose developer account will the app be published under?

Why it matters: Apple shows the account holder's organisation as the seller, and an organisation account needs a D-U-N-S Number (developer.apple.com, checked 29 October 2026). A good answer offers both routes with costs.

Aexir: £30 a year on Aexir's account, or your own Apple and Google accounts at about £130 a year paid to them, with Aexir guiding you.

11. If I leave, can the app listing move to my account?

Why it matters: Apple says a transferred app keeps its reviews and ratings; Google says users, statistics and ratings move too (Apple and Google help pages, checked 29 October 2026). A transfer moves the listing, not the code behind it, so ask who would build updates afterwards. A good answer is a written yes or no.

Aexir: not published. Ask us before choosing a developer account.

12. Can I see apps you have already published?

Why it matters: a public developer listing is evidence you can check yourself. A good answer is a link.

Aexir: try the interactive app and website demos on aexir.com, and ask us for links to live restaurant apps. Aexir has no published reviews on Trustpilot, Capterra or G2 yet (reviews).

Busy-night reliability

13. What happens if your system or my internet fails mid-service?

Why it matters: problems arrive at 7pm on a Friday. A good answer says whether customers can still order, where orders wait and what backup to keep.

Aexir: POS on the Go needs a connection and has no published offline mode, so the takeaway EPOS page advises a backup such as a mobile hotspot; the board updates live on every signed-in device.

14. Do you publish uptime figures or give outage credits?

Why it matters: a promise counts only if something happens when it breaks. Ressto's terms, for example, make subscription fees refundable after 'a confirmed platform outage exceeding 24 consecutive hours during the billing period' (ressto.co/terms-of-service.shtml, checked 28 October 2026). Ask for an incident history and a credit clause.

Aexir: aexir.com publishes no uptime figure or outage credit. Ask us what is in place.

15. Can I slow or stop orders when the kitchen is overrun?

Why it matters: orders you cannot cook in time lose you customers. A good answer is a per-site switch and quick sold-out marking.

Aexir: on POS on the Go each branch has an open or closed switch and weekly hours, items come off sale from the Stock screen, and menu sections switch on and off by time and day.

Support and menu changes

16. What are your support hours, and how do I reach a person during service?

Why it matters: a next-morning email cannot fix a payment failure at 8pm. A good answer names hours, channel and an urgent response time, weekends included.

Aexir: the setup page lists a case handler on email and WhatsApp and a 24-hour response aim, which is no help mid-service. Support hours are not published: ask us about Friday nights.

17. Who changes the menu, and how fast?

Why it matters: prices change weekly, and allergen information must be available before an online order is completed and on delivery (our allergen guide). A good answer is live editing you do yourself.

Aexir: live menu management is on every plan, and the setup page lists menu updates at no extra cost.

Refunds and card money

18. How do refunds work, and who pays the card fee on one?

Why it matters: Stripe's UK pricing page says the original processing fees are not returned on a refund, and its refunds guide says customers see the credit about 5 to 10 business days later (stripe.com, checked 29 October 2026). Get partial refunds and the fee rule in writing.

Aexir: app and website card orders refund in full or in part from the order screen, and cash refunds can be logged. Whether the 2.5% + 30p comes back is not published: ask us.

19. When does card money reach my bank, and who handles chargebacks?

Why it matters: cash flow. Stripe says a new account's first payout typically lands 7 to 14 days after the first live payment, UK payouts then settle in 3 business days by default, and its UK pricing lists £20 for each dispute received (stripe.com, checked 29 October 2026). A good answer names the account, the schedule and who pays disputes.

Aexir: payments run through Stripe, the integrations page lists weekly payouts to the restaurant's own bank account, and the restaurant handles refunds and complaints with its customers. Who pays a dispute fee is not on the price list: ask us.

Printers and hardware

20. Which printers work, and must I buy hardware from you?

Why it matters: a till that cannot print a kitchen ticket slows the first night. A good answer lists compatible devices and allows a test print.

Aexir: no till hardware has to come from Aexir. POS on the Go prints to ESC/POS printers on 58mm or 80mm paper from Chrome or Edge on a laptop, or from a Sunmi till through Aexir's POS app; phone and tablet browsers cannot drive printers directly.

Delivery

21. Who delivers, and what does each option cost?

Why it matters: delivery is where per-order costs hide. A good answer separates own drivers from couriers and gives the price per drop.

Aexir: no delivery fleet. In the UK you book a partner courier per delivery from the till, charged per delivery, or use your own driver.

22. Can I set delivery areas, fees and minimums per branch?

Why it matters: a radius too wide sends drivers down roads that lose money. A good answer is per-branch control of area, fees and minimums.

Aexir: per branch, a radius with fees by distance, free delivery over a set spend, a minimum order and zones drawn on a map, though checkout currently prices delivery from the distance settings.

Integrations

23. What connects today, rather than 'coming soon'?

Why it matters: a roadmap is not a feature. A good answer separates live integrations from planned ones.

Aexir: the integrations page lists Stripe with Apple Pay and Google Pay, UK partner couriers, App Store and Google Play publishing, push, Sunmi tills and a read-only API on POS on the Go. Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats run alongside, not connected, so their tablets stay.

Leaving

24. Who owns the web address customers order from?

Why it matters: an address the provider controls stops working when you leave, along with every QR code pointing at it. Ask whose name the domain is in, and print QR codes for a domain you own, pointed at the ordering page.

Aexir: the ordering website lives at yourname.aexir.com, hosted by Aexir. What happens to it after you leave is not published: ask us.

25. Walk me through the day I leave: what do I keep?

Why it matters: it shows what the relationship is really like. A good answer is a written exit list: final invoice, data export, app listing, web address, switch-off date and confirmation your customers' data was returned or deleted.

Aexir: the CSV export (and, on POS on the Go, the owner data API) lets you take your records yourself while on a plan; the other exit steps are not published, so ask us in writing. Leaving GloriaFood? See how to leave before the shutdown.

The takeaway ordering system checklist helps you pick the model first, and the alternatives hub compares named providers.