Fat Llama レビュー 1,527

someone left a review saying the whole place is run my hormonal teenagers and I couldn’t agree more. Rude service avoid.

I have to give Fat Llama and their team a massive thank you. My ProFoto B10 was damaged by a renter who denied any wrongdoing.

Fat Llama paid for all the repairs and was very patient. The entire process of having it repaired due to sourcing parts from abroad took over a month.

This experience has restored my trust in lender protection and putting up expensive equipment for rent.

One thing to note, it took some time to initially hear back from Fat Llama about the damage when it happened. That is one point to improve upon. It was about a week until Fat Llama responded and I had a damaged light I couldn't use.

Woefully bad downgrade to their website and app.

Theyve taken away the ability to search via a map, to see where items you want to rent are.

Imagine if Air BnB or IUber did this?

It makes it really tricky to actually find an item you want to rent, in a convenient location, - which really makes the whole thing quote broken to use

The latest redesign is so dreadfully awful, I don't even consider fat llama as an legit option today and haven't since the redesign. However, dreadfully reminded of what was once a very good service.

Previously you used to be able to see all related items and their rough location around you, making it easy to visualize distance and plan if an item might be on route or at your destination.

That has all been removed. Everything is for some reason stuck in kilometers and there is no way to figure out easily and quickly how out the way an item might be to rent.

It is utterly painful to use, Having to click on each item individually, copying the Rough location in Google maps to figure out where in the heck half the items are that I might be able to rent...

The website is easy to use, the experience overall is very nice.

Firstly, I have been a loyal FatLlama user for many years. HOWEVER, a few recent experiences have turned me off them completely. Their service used to be flawless and had a really stellar community vibe to it. But now it seems they are just ruthlessly profiteering with no interest in their customers at all. They favour large rental companies and not independent peer-to-peer users.
When you search for an item you are bombarded with listings that say they are local to you, but actually turn out to be a big company miles away that you can't even visit. It's almost impossible to find genuine local renters anymore. They "updgraded`' their website and user experience recently and it's been nothing but the opposite. Catastrophically bad. Maybe they have new management or investors that are hell bent on destroying the brand. Either way it's utterly puzzling how bad they've become.

I also had a troublesome experience with regards to a rental never being returned. When I eventually got a response from their team via email. The tone of the email was rude, condescending and certainly not friendly. It's like the whole place is being run by hormonal teenagers!

I used to recommend them to all my peers. Sadly, I will not be recommending them at all in anyway unless they drastically change immediately. For now at least; AVOID!

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

I am deeply disappointed with the recent overhaul of the Fat Llama website and mobile app, which has substantially degraded the user experience. Previously, the platform was a model of user-friendly design—intuitive, straightforward, and visually appealing, making the equipment rental process seamless and enjoyable.

However, the latest update has introduced a confusing, cluttered interface that complicates navigation. More frustratingly, the pricing system seems flawed. For example, a simple one-day equipment rental from Monday to Tuesday, which previously counted as a single day, is now inexplicably billed as two days. This not only affects affordability but also transparency in pricing.

Additionally, the removal of the interactive map—a key feature that allowed users to visually locate and select equipment—has stripped away a crucial tool for efficient browsing and selection.

This update feels like a step backward and significantly tarnishes the brand’s reputation. I urge the Fat Llama team to reconsider these changes and restore the functionality and simplicity that made their platform a preferred choice for users like myself.

The new desktop and mobile phone app upgrade is horrendous, a total downgrade and is shocking!

Their previous app was amazing, simple to use with a clean clear welcoming design, making your rental procedure easy and straight forward.

What they have designed now is poorly designed, along with an incorrect quotation system when booking equipment, for example, i booked some equipment for a 1 day shoot, collect on a Monday to drop back on a Tuesday, on the old system that is a one day booking - on the new system that very same booking is now charging for two days?!?

They have also gotten rid of the interactive map feature that displays the available equipment when you move around on the map.

What they've done to their brand is totally upsetting, i write this as my first review outside of the platform in a hope that they read this, get their act together and sort their platform out!

Awful service. When I tried to get help, the team didn't have a clue what they're doing and actually made matters worse. Absolute mess, avoid.

Don’t waste your time and money

I recently rented out my camera on Fat Llama, and unfortunately, the experience was far from satisfactory. The renter failed to return the camera on time, despite agreeing to return it the day after pickup. I promptly raised a dispute with Fat Llama, and they assured me they would contact me within 48 hours. However, I never received any communication from them during this critical period.

Thankfully, the renter eventually returned the camera four days late. Nonetheless, the lack of support from Fat Llama during this stressful situation was extremely disappointing. Their customer service was unresponsive when I needed them most, and this experience has left me wary of using their platform again. When you need them, they are simply not there for you. I cannot recommend Fat Llama based on this experience.

UPDATE ON 30/07:
Still Fat Llama did not bother getting in touch

What made my experience great? It's Louise. She was so great and she even wait for everything.
I'm lucky to born in this era where these apps are heaven.

I don't think I have seen customer service this bad.
They are truly the worst ! They take over a day to verify your documents but take money immediately.
the verification process is so ridiculous. Why must I verify every time I book ??
They never used to be this bad.

Louise was great and so easy to work with through the verification process.

Waste of time I tried to rent but verification took tool lomng after I've used many times. Not impressed had to cancel rental.

STAY AWAY!!!! I'm convinced THESE ARE FAKE POSITIVE REVIEWS, SENT SOO MUCH PERSONAL INFO AND WITH AN EXCELLENT CREDIT SCORE THEY WASTED MY TIME. STILL AWAITING THEM TO RESPOND....

I've been using Fat Llama for many years, since it started.. But in the past year or so at least, their verification process has spiralled out of control.

Today it has taken them over 7 HOURS (so far) of my valuable time to verify me. This puts the whole point of my rental, and project, in jeopardy as my rental is supposed to start now.

Yet they have my money.

I was already verified, but because I passed a new value threshold on my rental (about 4k), I was asked to re-verify everything.

This is after booking, communicating with the other user, and PAYING.

Unphased, I sent bank statements as requested (which were rejected for being old, even though they are from the past week), I sent utility bills, I sent payslips, I sent a passport, all via a new 'improved' app which would constantly return errors.

Eventually, after having my documents vaguely rejected multiple times, I resorted to the 'live chat', which redirects you to a FAQ script.

After managing to find an email address, I requested a call, and was told hours later on the phone that I also needed to submit a social media portfolio!

I don't use social media, and so in lieu of that I was asked to send 'correspondence from your client'... for what reason, I still do not know. I sent that immediately, and now, at almost 7pm, I am still awaiting verification.

The phone number does not receive incoming calls, and the 'live' chat isnt live. The closing time for their office is reported as 5pm, 6pm, and 7pm in different parts of the website.

The whole thing is a complete shambles and as a long term user of their service i expected a little better.

Avoid if you can. I will in future.

Terrible customer service (for an issue that still hasn’t been resolved). They’re happy to take your money, but you won’t hear from them when you need help. Appalling.

Really unreliable. Slow at replying and verifying documents.

Ask for the same documents twice, delay rentals and cancel in a very random way.

I had a rental approved then I had to cancel to exchange for a slightly different rental, which fatllama refused.

I was also in a rush because I had an event in the evening, but they couldn’t verify my order until it was wayy too late.

I didn’t have issues using fatllama before, but it seems something changed within their services recently.

Don’t trust them for last minute help EVER