“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.”
“I've been using Fat llama since May, 2019. Two of my friends recommended me this. I then started recoommended to friends to use it. one of my friends came up with loads of negative feedback about fat llama and advised me not to use it as this is not reliable platform to lend someone your expensive equipment in case borrower refuse to return, fat llama will not take responsibility. He even said, its a dodgy company they just make commission but do not take responsibility of lenders expensive equipment. I immediatly emailed to fat llama and they replied me and posted links to read terms ans conditions and policies of rental.
Well, I kept on renting my equipment. In August, one borrower who rented my camera and lens did not return couple of accessories (battery, data cable and lens cap). I communcated and managed to retrieve battery and data cable but he failed to return lens cap. I waited couple of days for his reply when he stopped responding I reported him to Fat llama. After sending a duly filled fat llama form I received an email from Resolution Manager, Samiya Mosdiq where she said Fat llama can not take any action apparently I have reported late, needed to be report within 24 hours of missing item. I explained them that borrower was communicating with me and there was no need to report him unnecesarliy. Reporting borrower means no business with borrower in future because borrower gonna remember you and will not rent in future. But she came up with same excuse of company's policy and even declined to look into case because I reported it late and she told me that Im not priority for fat llama as there is high volume of cases already in que.
During my communcation with resolution manager, I received an email from Product Manager, Ziv Reichert askkng me to book a slot to talk on telephone about my recent rental experience and in returm as thanks I would get £25. I thought, it sounds great, its ok, if they do not accept my claim of £21.99. I never received a call from product manager
I got very annoyed I dropped an email: info@fatllma.com and right after that i received a reply from resolution manager but her reply was same i.e. NO. I got another email from customer service team member, Zayne, apologising me about situation and informed me that Product Manager is away for holidays its better to book another slot once he comes back. it means clients/ customers are not important for fat llama. Seriously ? I booked slot and they were not even bother to update me.
I was more surprised when I got another email from Georgio telling me not to disrespect fat llama team members when I post reviews online.
Email from Georgio: "I am very sorry to hear that Khurram. But please do keep in mind when making your review if you mention names these are real people so please do be respectful. We have many cases our resolutions team deal with everyday, they follow a tried and tested process to come to a fair result for both sides."
So they care about care about their employees but they do not care about their clients.
I'm thinking, they have treated me pretty unfair on a claim of £21.99 what if claim was of big value.
My reviews are not going resolve my case. However, I think, its good to share my experince with fat llama which is not great so far.”
“Bought a Xiaomi electric scooter from FirstCanaryWharf, is over 1 month that I'm trying to give the item back for have the refund but nobody answer me and from FatLlama team they say that my problem is gonna be sorted and everytime they give me a new email to contact, worst buying experience in my life.”
“Fat Llama are clearly the cheapest option for purchasing a GoPro 7 Black camera but the automatic payment system refuses to accept either of my debit cards from two different banks. The online chat assistant told me to contact my bank. What, both of them? So, I bought the camera from Amazon instead and was happy to pay the extra £20 for the piece of mind.”
“Worse customer service experienced ever!
Not only my listed items did not show in the search, but when I emailed them to report the problem the Shelley girl at customers service was only able to say she would have failed a report to send to their tech. After that I carry on emailing them to have news regarding my issue, none of them came back to me for over a week, until today when I told them I would have cancel my account, a dude came back to me apologising for the late response told me he would had look into my problem and came back to me ASAP (that was 5 hours ago) since then I haven’t heard nothing again. I have then decided to delete my FatLlama account for the simple reason that if they are not so active as customer service for such a small issue, I can’t imagine how can they be if something goes wrong between you and your borrower. I have read many bad reviews, and is really not worth the pain.
Friends have got their item stolen and they have done nothing in repaying the back, God knows if they even have an insurance. Do yourself a favour and DO NOT rent on this site!”
“Got a damaged product and no support whatsoever by the FatLlama team and had to pair the full repair cost. Would never use this website again, absolutely no protection for the lender. Really really bad”
“I recently completed a rental on here. On return of my item there was no physical damage to the item so I thought nothing of it.
A few days later I came to use the camera lens and realised it wasn’t working with my camera.
I got in touch with support and explained and was told ‘I am too late to claim any compensation.’
I am now having to foot a bill of £230 on my own. Which is probably the total of any money I have made from renting my gear out.
I am extremely cross and will not be using the service again.
I will also ensure that anyone who asks me about it I will strongly recommend they do not use the service or risk being kicked to the kerb as I was when something went wrong.
There is no security for lenders renting out their items on here.
A quick look at any review site has plenty of reviews exactly the same as mine where fat lama refuses to pay any money out for the people who put their gear at risk on this website.
If this is the ethos of the company then it will only be a matter of time until these reviews become too great a threat for anyone do do business with you as the middle man.
I strongly advise you to offer more support for the people who lend their gear on this site. Without these people, you are nothing.”
“Your lender guarantee clause about users own value estimate is terrible. My item was stolen and I am now offered half the market value due to my conservative estimate and pounds downward near history. I am currently getting legal council and drafting my strategy for how to escalate the matter in public with the most efficiency.”
“Mediocre support from the Fat Llama team, lack of insurance requirement for renters, poor safety guarantees for owners, and higher fees than any other platform. Fat llama has a long way to go if they want to succeed in the Los Angeles market.”
“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.”
“Bought a Xiaomi electric scooter from FirstCanaryWharf, is over 1 month that I'm trying to give the item back for have the refund but nobody answer me and from FatLlama team they say that my problem is gonna be sorted and everytime they give me a new email to contact, worst buying experience in my life.”
