fatlama.com 

Honestly fat llama is ridiculous, my booking was cancelled but they didn’t refund my money. They stole money, which is absolutely atrocious. There is no form of buyer protection with this service they have no care for customers.

Greetings,

My name is Paul Villa, I work in the media and tech industry. I’m writing this as i have come across something today that has made me sick to my stomach. Being a victim of ID FRAUD myself and disgracefully all openly on Social Media Especially (INSTAGRAM), I would like to warn you guys of what is happening out here right under our nose! So you can share with your outlet and peers, to stay aware of what we put into our computer and where.

While browsing on the explore page on Instagram with a simple #fraud hashtag, i came across a group of what seem hackers & fraudsters based in our city!, Selling People’s bank card details, id’s, bank accounts and logins to sites such as (AMAZON, GUMTREE, FAT LAMA, PAYPAL, UBER, DELIVEROO & PETROL STATION ACCOUNT LOGINS, they also openly promote the ability to match the victim’s I.P for “100% SUCCESS RATE’!” and buy goods and sell them to their followers at 50%, who with the Hackers negotiate ‘deals’ in the comments section.

I have attached below various screen shots taken while going through these pages, all which seem like they are a LONDON & BIRMINGHAM! based gang connected via social media, giving each other “shoutouts”, to increase their followers.
They seem to have sophisticated ways of hacking sites (as mentioned above) and acquiring our LogIns and Card details, which then they use their own various methods to obtain a financial gain from these. ITS TOO EASY FOR THEM!

A LOT OF COMPANIES ESPECIALLY THE ONES STATED ABOVE THAT HAVE BEEN VICTIMS OF HACKING SEEM TO HIDE IT FROM THEIR CUSTOMERS, AS I SEE NO ARTICLES AT ALL!, THEY DONT EVEN LET THEiR USERS KNOW NOTHING!!!! GIVING US NO CHANCE TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND CHANGE OUR INFO!!

MORE SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT THIS, WE MUST PROTECT OUR GRID AND ONLINE SECURITIES ITS TOO EASY FOR THESE HACKERS, ALSO COMPANIES SHOULD BEEF UP THEIR SECURITY BECAUSE WE ARE LOSING…... TO WHAT SEEMS TO BE 16 YEAR OLDS.

PV

P.S I CREATED A PROFILE AND SPOKE TO ONE OF THESE HACKERS, I WAS ABLE TO BUY SOMEONES LOG IN DETAILS AND CARD DETALS FOR A SPECIFIC SITE WHICH I WONT MENTION YET - FOR A EASY £100!!!! VIA BITCOIN OF COURSE….. I CONTACTED THE INDIVIDUAL (AS I HAD HIS PHONE NUMBER NOW) AND EXPLAINED, HE WAS IN SHOCK AND HAS REPORTED THIS TO ACTION FRAUD.

THE PEOPLE MUST KNOW.
ZOOM IN ON MY PROFILE PICTURE TO SEE, HAPPY TO SEND LINKS TO SEE IF YOUR ACCOUNT INFO IS ON THEIR DATABASE

I'm yet another one of those poor saps who is selling something on Gumtree and have received a text message from these guys stating "Hey. Would you be happy to rent this to me? Happy to go through fatlama.com so it’d be insured?"

Come on, leave people like me alone. I'm just trying to sell my laptop and don't need idiots like you bothering me with phoney interest in my item.

using gumtree for marketing not a good way of advertising

Aweful and deceptive marketing with the generic text in response to my gumtree advert.

'Hey. Would you be happy to rent this to me? Happy to go through fatlama.com so it’d be insured?'

This is not ok! Also anyone thinking about using their services, read about them first including their T&Cs..they dont actually insure lenders items, lots of hidden fees with no protection for either party, plenty of illegal activity including breaches of your personal data.... steer clear until they sort this all out!

Had to write a review as there dont seem to be many "credible" trustpilot users doing so

Joined this a little while ago after a chap in a video startup company was telling me how he used it to borrow kit he couldnt afford to buy yet - so I know it does work for some folks

I am yet to get any interest in my rentals. At all. Most of the folks profiles I look at have zero reviews (so implied zero lends?) Will certainly update if/when things happen

- it feels a bit like AirBnB in the early days when there was a Wild West feel to things before they became more professional. I am happy to stick with it as the idea certainly appeals, if this portal doesnt fly another one will come along and FatLama will have missed their 'first to market' chance with a great idea

I wasn't sure about this at first but after lending my drone out for a couple of days and getting paid without hassle, I'm now a believer (at least for the time being). I now plan to rent out camping gear and a camera for an upcoming hike.

Pretty easy set up and the stated up to $30k insurance helps build trust. I'd suggest checking out the site. I guess if we are open to renting out our homes to strangers on airbnb and get in to cars with strangers on uber & lyft, then we can rent out our insured items to strangers too, no? Time will tell!

If you haven't tried it yet, you can use my referral code to get $25 in credit: fatlama[dot]com/r/alex-de9ae

Like others here I was introduced to this site via a generic text message.
"""
Re: your item
Hey. Would you be happy to rent this to me? Happy to go through fatlama.com so it’d be insured?
"""
This is certainly not a good way to build trust in your brand

I have been a customer of Fat Llama for quite a while now and feel quite offended by the reviews left by people who haven’t even tried using the platform themselves. It’s definitely easy to criticise, but more difficult is to say something good. Fat Llama is a brand new idea on the market, created by young professionals to people like you. The business idea involves its users as without them (us) the business wouldn’t really exist. I am a borrower, as well as a lender and love the fact that you actually can meet the other person during the pick - up and drop- off. While you’re not able to always buy what you want, Fat Llama makes this concept even better. Why buy when yo can rent. So far I have found things like projectors, bikes, cameras, kitchen accessories, plenty of tools for my boyfriend who is currently fixing his bike, a boat and much much more. I am not trying to say that Fat Llama is perfect, they do make mistakes ( who doesn’t?) but they’re really good at learning and taking feedback from their customers. How many times your Deliveroo food got delivered cold ( or not at all) or you haven’t been able to get your Uber ( Saturday night, classic in some areas)? We still however trust them, because what they do is great! Fat Llama has my support, I am planning on using it as often as I can. Hope you too 😉

The sad truth about FAT LAMA

It is a warning review about today's discovery.
I called today Fat Lama website customer service to ask questions about their insurance policy. If someone does not know what a Fat Lama is - it is a website which connects a potential lender and borrowers of any kind of thing you can imagine but cars, motorcycles, boats, planes, and guns.
So... I got someone on the phone saying
-"hello".
So, I am asking
-"who are you?"
-"K...".
-"K... who? where from?" I do not know if this is someone from the web or not... I needed to ask 6 questions before I got an answer that he is from "fat lama" "customer service".
I had never had this kind of experience with any customer service. So, asking questions he got scared and have me "manager " to the phone.
Without introducing himself, he asks me who am I? Wow!
But not this is the most important info here.
I am not sure how many people are reading the policy and pay attention to it, but I will tell you what I discovered.

1. BORROWER - The price which is on the web is not the price what you will pay.
On the top of it you will pay the merchant fees, and 15% for the company Flat Lama service (which is ok). That means that from $100 rental you will end up paying 100+15+3.5, so the total will be up to appx $118.5. And you hope that it will be the only price.
Their insurance policy for BORROWERS does NOT EXIST. If you will break, lose etc. the borrowed equipment, on top of $118.5 you are reliable for a full price of a new same type of equipment, even if you have borrowed used.
But what happens to the money (since the "company" has an insurance for the lenders)? Well, even if the insurance pays money to the lender - Fat Lama will charge you and keep all the money of the equipment price and the 15% rental for themselves.
Notice that there is no note where the money goes, so if you hope that it goes to the lender- you are wrong!
2. LENDER- be aware!!
It would be great if lending your belonging was that easy!
Are you already happy that you can lend your equipment and make money? well, wait with your decision until you read this.
Fat Lama charges 15% from your rental, means if you rent for $100, you will end up getting $85 plus you need to pay the pay pal fee appx 3.5 %, and on top of it federal and state income tax.
But This is not the scariest point.
THE INSURANCE:
Fat Lama company does not say where are they insured, what is the insurance policy number (so you can claim it). The only thing they say is that they have insurance up to $30.000. But per one piece of equipment, per all company, insurance for your equipment OR the company’s liability? Which one? Up to, hm...? Do they pay you a full price if the borrower loses or damages your property? hm.... well, NO!
If you do not have your own insurance policy from theft, damage, loss and very important -liability (especially in case of drones), they will pay you NOTHING. They stated that if "your insurance" won't pay then they insurance will take it into consideration but getting money back is not guaranteed.
Therefore, if you do not have your own insurance, you can dream about getting money back. Notice that they do not guarantee that they will give you the money collected from the borrower as well.
So, they will charge the borrower full amount of your equipment price and they will KEEP all to themselves!! Yes, you read correctly.
So yes, these were my questions:
" So, you are telling me that if the lender has no insurance your insurance won’t kick off? And if the borrower has no insurance in case of damage or loss of the property they must pay full price of brand new equipment to you? And in the end regardless if your policy will pay to the lender for the damage or it won’t, you are keeping the borrower’s collected money to yourself" Is that correct? " The answer was – “yes”.
Now you decide if it is ok for you to deal with them.
Maybe you used their service already and you have your own experience, that is great! All I am saying is -Be cautious!
I would not take a risk either way. And if you do not believe me, call them and ask questions. Ps. you won’t find their phone number on the web :). They simply did not expect anybody to call.
This review is copy write but you are welcome to share it with your friends if you care for them.

Maya R.

I have had a great experience as a lender but as a borrower it became a nightmare. These guys don’t even know their own T&C’s and has debited my account without investigation. Be very careful. I will be leaving them now as i feel completely violated.

Wow! Got to rent a go pro head camera for my trip to Switzerland. The pics I managed to get when i was at the countryside were super! And I got it for a competitive price using the fat lama introductory offer of £20 off. Will be using again :)

I was sceptical about Fat Lama from the start. I have a drone I was thinking of renting out so I checked out other drones for rent. Immediately spotted the same drone an Inspire 2 at £90 a day but the photo was of a smashed up Inspire on the tarmac. I emailed the owner who said the pic was a mistake, he was renting a Mavic but someone had crashed it so he’d sent in a pic for the insurance. Except I know the difference between the 2 and this was a smashed up inspire. he did also have a Mavic for rent which shouldn’t be for rent if someone had smashed it up. Questioned him again and got another answer that didn’t add up saying he had both but I shouldn’t have seen the photo of the damaged Mavic. ???

The bigger worry was the statement about the claims process. Which tried to reassure me that it was usually in the borrower’s interest to pay for any damage straight away. Err why? When they know the item is apparently insured for up to £25,000. Let the insurance pay why not! The procedure goes on to state that if it can be confirmed the borrower caused the damage then the insurance will pay out. (As long as I’m squeaky clean with no ccj’s, no more than 2 insurance claims in the last 5 years, etc etc. ) How exactly do they confirm the borrower caused the damage. And if they can’t get the borrower to agree? Then what. No payout?

Too many holes all round. I emailed with a few questions on the above plus things like “is there a legally enforceable contract between borrowers and lenders” but have had no response. Why are they called borrowers and lenders when they’re hiring stuff out. Isn’t that renting. Is that a legal loophole?

The lender responded to my emails about the photo within literally 2 mins. Which I have to say did really surprise me. But the answers didn’t make much sense.

Today I checked Trust Pilot and the first review is from ‘Alena’ stating she’s rented out her drone so many times she’s made half the money back in a month. Is the world full of people hiring drones? I’ve been droning for a year and met one girl who had one as opposed to about 30 blokes.

Lots of negative reviews all round and like a lot of people have said, the 5*s all look to be written by same person.

Good luck Fat Lama

And all from a BBC News story about a guy who made 20k renting out his camera.

If it sounds too good to be true ... it usually is.

I've been renting out my drone for the past two months and have made back about half the value so that's been pretty good but what impressed me most is that someone flew it in high winds and snapped two of the propellors - Fat Lama sorted it out literally within hours so I'm going to keep going with it!

I went for a 2 week trip with the Mrs in Australia and wanted to bring along a good quality camera. I just think this service offered the perfect solution for us – instead of blowing 1k for a camera that’d dust at home, I rented a Canon for the trip. Hassle free, good price and great customer service.

Felt like a dishonest company. Agreed a rental price with the lender of £420. Invoice came through from Fat Lama for over £568 with no breakdown attached to it. Upon persistent querying they finally confirmed that they charge the lender 15% on his £420 then the person borrowing another %15 on top of that!

Over 34% added to the cost in fees. Extortionate. Fees very much like a money making scam.

All scam as people say. All 5* are fake.

I was selling my lens on gumtree, got a text message if I want to lend it via fatlama. After reading it here honestly, I know it's a scam.

Now the best part. They used my email address to sign me up themselves. Just got an email welcoming me to their website LOL. I never signed up or even visited their website.

"Thanks for signing up! You’re helping to build a future where we waste less and share more. We can’t wait for you to meet the other lamas in your area..."

Recently been renovating my house and needed to rent a professional carpet cleaner and some wallpaper steamers. Thought it was a bit niche and that I would have to pay someone a ton to do it but was pleasantly surprised to find someone with both a cleaner and steamer, made it easier for me to get the job done and my total spend here was £50 for the weekend.

There’s some odd people on here leaving bad reviews for a service they have never used and don’t understand. They seem to be oblivious to the fact rental gear is insured and the renters go through security checks. So Ignore them. Fatlama worked great for me when I needed to rent out some radio mics, nice guy, good price and he website is easy to use. Saved me loads on going through a rental house or buying and then selling. Will use again!

Fat Lama has been a dream for someone like me. Any creative work I have done has been massively enhanced by the ability for me to borrow more professional equipment that as a student I can’t really be buying myself. Not only that, the lenders I meet have always been on hand to offer advice, even when I’ve had silly questions, a lender I texted gave me a call back and gave me super helpful tips on using his A7s to enhance my photos. You wouldn’t tell by looking at the snaps that I am not yet a professional! Thanks Fat Lama, cannot recommend ya enough!!