Yes, I have the same problem even with a pretty good player. It seems some people think that rental DVD's make good frisbee's :/
Some rental stores used to have their disks fixed, but doesn't seem to happen anymore, must be too expensive.
As mentioned, some players cope better than others, a reviewer for EA magazine(RIP) from the CD days used the Wedge Test.
He had a CD with an opaque wedge on it, thin at centre of disk, thick at edge.
When played the music would start skipping at a certain point, and stop altogether at another point, with repeatable results. Same disk different machines, a good comparative test
