The idea is amazing and the world needs it - and it's great to see someone actually trying to do this! Currently using Fat Llama is a pretty slow and cumbersome experience though.
Firstly, it's totally manual: there are no tools to make the renting process seamless. For example, even though Doodle has existed for 10 years, there are no built-in tools to make it easier to find a mutual pickup time and location, and instead you have to use slow back and forth exchange of text messages. That alone makes it completely impractical to use FatLlama to lend items where the rental value is under £5.
Second, the product itself still feels like a first version. This is probably growing pains, but nevertheless. By default they email, push notify, *and* text message you every time there is a reply to a message, and send follow-ups if you don't reply straight away. This means that if one person sends one message to you, you can end up getting 4-6 notifications. You have to email support to get the email notifications turned off (there's no setting in your profile to control that). On an iPhone SE, many of the critical buttons don't even appear on the screen because they are covered by a banner - it's been assumed that everyone is using a bigger screen.
Maybe most importantly, there's really not that much on FatLlama. They've gone for a "rent anything from anyone anywhere in the world" approach, which seems to have led to there being a few listings spread very sparsely around big cities, rather than a concentrated and varied group of listings in any single area. That means you will have to travel a long way to pick something up.
Ultimately all these things mean FatLlama is only really for renting very high value items right now. If they billed themselves as specifically for high end audiovisual equipment this would be totally fair enough, but instead they bill themselves as "rent anything from anyone". That's just not accurate.
I really hope they succeed though! The world definitely needs fewer copies of the same items when so much of the time they sit around redundant most of the time.
5 years ago
Fat Llama has a
4.5
average rating
from
285
reviews
Book your activation call by clicking the button below. Or call us now on
+1 213-325-5109 .
Book a Call
Alice, Customer Support
Start Your Free Trial
Thank you! Now Check Your Email...
A member of our team wil be in contact shortly to discuss your existing contract and the next steps to take.
We've sent you a link to verify your free account. Click the 'VERIFY ACCOUNT' button in the email to complete activation and access your REVIEWS.io dashboard.
If you have any issues then please open chat to talk to a product specialist.