“Appalling. Breach of GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018. Search your name or a friends or relatives and see how their location for lending comes up. Can promote stalking behaviour. Do not recommended. Staff unhelpful and refuse they cannot hide this.”
“surance Cover
I had been with Fat Lama since 2017 and everything till now has gone well.
Recently however I have had an awful experience with two pieces of equipment being rented and not returned. The hirer was approved by Fat lama .
The replacement value I received in the end did not cover the cost of both items.
I am not going to go into figures but please note if you are renting out equipment that has increased in value over the years eg old cameras , microphones you will not receive the true value of the equipment Or it’s replacement value
Their policy I quote is :
4.1. We will pay for the cost of repair, replacement value, or the original value with any item depreciation applied, whichever is less. The ‘original value’ is determined by the price you paid for it and must be evidenced by you (e.g. with a proof of purchase). Depreciation is determined by the Claims Team.
They also add a depreciation of 6% per year Please consider this thoroughly before joining.
The whole experience was very up setting to the extent that it has taken me this long to write about it.
I have as a result closed my account with Fat lama.
David”
“Such a good idea, but terrible (red flag) customer services. Messages ignored, live chat ignored and no way to phone the company. Fat Llama created an with a rental and then wouldn't resolve it. Didn't seem bother and didn't say sorry. I'll spend my money elsewhere thanks.”
“Really poor service, had to jump through a million hoops including a 10 minute phone interrogation as to what I was planning to do with the kit we were hoping to hire. Really invasive questioning, felt like I was being investigated by the Police. I understand the need to be thorough, but this went to a whole different level and it's not ok.”
“Untrustworthy, insincere and slow response time in relation to Customer Service. I'm awaiting an item to be returned from a 'borrower' and the consistent negligence from the Fat Llama team is taking its strain. You'll know who I am as I've emailed you 3 times this week and yet again, vacant responses! Check all your inboxes and attend to the matter urgently. Also suspicious regarding many of these '5 Star' reviews - it wouldn't surprise me if the majority are fabricated; somebody else I know had a similar experience earlier on this year and advised me against this. I wish I'd have listened.”
“Untrustworthy, insincere and slow response time in relation to Customer Service. I'm awaiting an item to be returned from a 'borrower' and the consistent negligence from the Fat Llama team is taking its strain. You'll know who I am as I've emailed you 3 times this week and yet again, vacant responses! Check all your inboxes and attend to the matter urgently. Also suspicious regarding many of these '5 Star' reviews - it wouldn't surprise me if the majority are fabricated; somebody else I know had a similar experience earlier on this year and advised me against this. I wish I'd have listened.”
“Untrustworthy, insincere and slow response time in relation to Customer Service. I'm awaiting an item to be returned from a 'borrower' and the consistent negligence from the Fat Llama team is taking its strain. You'll know who I am as I've emailed you 3 times this week and yet again, vacant responses! Check all your inboxes and attend to the matter urgently. Also suspicious regarding many of these '5 Star' reviews - it wouldn't surprise me if the majority are fabricated; somebody else I know had a similar experience earlier on this year and advised me against this. I wish I'd have listened.”
“They have the absolute worst customer service of any website I've ever used. I am trying to deal with their customer support, but they've been extremely unhelpful. Do not recommend.”
“So this is how it Works. You rent an item you have chosen from a photo, but in actual fact the lender posts an item of ‘ similar’ appearance which is also broken.
The recipient informs Fat Llama it is the wrong item and broken. But they state that can’t be the case as the lender has a photo. ARE YOU GETTING THE PICTURE?
Fat Llama obviously believe their unscrupulous lender and demand payment for an item never received based on the fact they have a picture!
Fat Llama opens the doors to invite immoral, unethical scammers in and not only condone these SCAMs but supports them.
If you like a bit of dodgy dealing this is the place to be. If you rent from here be ready for false accusations because apparently all lenders are honest people and they have a photo, so why wouldn’t they be?
Be prepared, that nice shiny camera you think you are renting might turn out to be a battered old iron in the box, but the photo shows the camera you always wanted to play with. So be prepared to pay up!
Please avoid this scam and don’t believe the lender reviews.
* Be careful with your precious ID”
“So this is how it Works. You rent an item you have chosen from a photo, but in actual fact the lender posts an item of ‘ similar’ appearance which is also broken.
The recipient informs Fat Llama it is the wrong item and broken. But they state that can’t be the case as the lender has a photo. ARE YOU GETTING THE PICTURE?
Fat Llama obviously believe their unscrupulous lender and demand payment for an item never received based on the fact they have a picture!
Fat Llama opens the doors to invite immoral, unethical scammers in and not only condone these SCAMs but supports them.
If you like a bit of dodgy dealing this is the place to be. If you rent from here be ready for false accusations because apparently all lenders are honest people and they have a photo, so why wouldn’t they be?
Be prepared, that nice shiny camera you think you are renting might turn out to be a battered old iron in the box, but the photo shows the camera you always wanted to play with. So be prepared to pay up!
Please avoid this scam and don’t believe the lender reviews.”
“Absolutely rubbish, after giving them all my personal details (some even twice) they tell me it couldn't be verified !
I can even get loan or credit card with not providing so many details !
Customer service is pointless no
Point to even try to get help there .”
“Recently I had to ask for help from Fat Llama Resolutions Centre. It was a minor issue, but I had troubles with resolving the matter with the borrower directly. My case manager has connected with me via email and guided through the process. As on outcome, I have received the funds to repair my electric scooter. Painless, quick and efficient. I felt that I have received service on a personal level and feel secure that should anything like this happen again ( small or big) I am covered and Fat Llama has my back.
Thank you.”
“After agreeing a rental term and price with a kind renter, I was asked to verify my ID by Fat Llama. Which is completely fair, as it's expensive kit and I'm a first time renter.
I was prompted to do a full KYC check, where I uploaded my ID, proof of employment, proof of address, video selfie verification, access to my private instagram AND bank statement. Despite feeling slightly violated, I assured myself, this was all to prove I was a legit customer and I wasn't going to steal the kit. So I uploaded all this sensitive info. Bear in mind this is enough info to open bank accounts, conduct credit checks and rent anything from a car to whole house, so surely a couple of cameras is no big deal...
I then had a message from support saying that my request had been denied, as the kit was too expensive and I'd need to rent cheaper equipment. Obviously, the whole reason I'd come to Fat Llama in the first place was to rent that specific kit, so telling me to rent something else is not an option and also just a massive failure in understanding your customer.
I messaged support querying their decision, and explained that we were only interested renting that specific bit of kit. To which I had various conflicting responses from different support staff. Despite all this I was assured that they'd give me a call tomorrow to confirm a couple of things and all would be ok.
The next day I had to chase up support to get a call. When someone did eventually call, I was interrogated about how the kit would be used, where it would be stored, business information and even asked for the talent we'd be shooting's contact information. I obliged to all, despite the latter as this is a violation of GDPR.
2 mins after the call get another email from Fat Llama saying I had failed verification. You can imagine, after wasting a couple of days getting verified jumping through hoops and chasing ever changing support, this was incredibly frustrating.
In the end all I got was an email saying the kit was too expensive to rent out, and that I should use their rental partner (and tried directing me to camera rental company.) Pretty laughable considering the whole point of Fat Llama is to rent gear from other people. Considering Fat Llama shouts about "Convenient access to any item" I can wholly say this has been FAR from what I experienced.
I risked using Fat Llama for a cheaper price, got messed about, and ended up having to scrabble around last min to find an alternative.
I learnt my lesson. I'll never touch the platform again for any rental.
Anyone who's interested in using this on a professional level, stay clear, go to a traditional kit shop, who won't mess you about and ask for your first born son to get verified...”
“Awful experience with this platform. Beware any one renting or lending camera equipment should avoid Fat Llama at all costs! They ruined my plans and cost me in excess of £3000 in model fees and I will be suing them for amongst other things, breach of contract and a number of other. All parties involved both borrower and lenders were inconvenienced and incurred financial loses. Fat Llama representatives are completely unprofessional and dishonest in my honest experience.”
“Unfortunately, my recent dealings with Fat Llama have been anything but good service. I had a lot of items that were not returned by the borrower. Despite providing the evidence they requested and CCTV footage of the person in question, they have denied my claim.
They told me they sent my personal information to the thief and when I raised my concern about that I was told to 'change my phone number'. For my personal safety, fearing the thief can easily discover me online if/when the police catch him, I now feel compelled to change my number.
In the past, Fat Llama has been a great way to make money for a platform that promotes trust in others. But when it comes down to it, they do not practice what they preach. It's a very sad moment for me to lose trust the way I have through dealing with this company.”
“Great platform for making money of your equipment when you're not using it.
I lent my camera for a first time recently to a person living in my area and everything went well; easy pick up point, got paid within 3days and nothing bad happened to my camera.
Use my link for 20off when you rent:
fatllama.com /r/jago-2c9b8”
“Such a great idea, but really let down by dreadful arrogant customer services. On a number of occasions they haven’t replied to issues raised. I’ve now stopped lending items on Fat Llama as my items are expensive and if there was an issue, I don’t have confidence (based on my previous lending experience) that Fat Llama would even reply, let alone sort the issue out.”
