Aran Logistics and its owner Tom O Boyle are frauds. STAY AWAY BY ALL MEANS. This company is now in liquidation, being run from a cell phone while Tom changes addresses to avoid attachment of property he has left. They have no assets left and are currently hiding their last truck trailer in a location close to the address stated on their fancy website. To sum it up, this company and person is an Irish criminal committing fraud on a daily basis in RSA.
My family and I emigrated to Australia in May 2022. We wanted to bring over a few select sentimental items and therefore contacted a few local companies close to where we lived to give us quotes. We received quotes from three different logistics companies, with one being Aran Logistics. We, unfortunately, selected Aran Logistics on price and promise, but to our disappointment, this was only the start of a stressful time that is still not over.
It commenced with the collection of our items. A truck arrived without a container, which was different from the agreement. The excuse (of many to come) was that due to Covid 19, containers were in short supply. We should have seen the alarm bells at this stage. After trying to contact Tom O Boyle he explained that due to us storing the container for a month, this is the process. oblivious, we agreed, and our items were collected.
We landed in Australia and thought everything was on track. When we enquired about the progress, the first excuse arose that containers still could not be sourced, and this will delay the departure by a month. We agreed, while in the meantime, the additional costs were being queried, for tax clearance, storage ect... Aran is very good at adding on additional unforeseen costs.
The next excuse was that the date was missed because the ship could not dock due to bad weather. Then the ship could not load, because it was full, and the excuses continued and became more and more unbelievable.
The final straw was when Tom O Boyle said that I would need to pay another R 50 000 for port fees on the Australian side. I then pulled the plug and requested that he return my items to an address in Johannesburg for safekeeping, and I will be cancelling with Aran Logistics.
He agreed and set up a date, only to cancel last minute because he was too busy, meanwhile, he did not have any trucks left or available and that was the real reason. I then reverted to obtaining a Private Investigator to locate my items and return them. This took two weeks at an additional cost to me for the investigation and the transportation. I finally had my items back, which we could not put a price too; however, Aran Logistics still owed me R 120 000.
The agreement between Tom was that a day after collection, he would pay over the money- that he owed. He then claimed that this period cost him R 55 000, of which R 15 000 was for admin and communication. Ridiculous! It has been 14 days after collection and still no payments have been made. Tom now states that he will pay back the money when he receives an ID copy of the truck driver that collected the items. This has been sent to him, but once again, he does not give feedback.
This is only a summary of the trauma we have been through with ARAN logistics. This is important information to note, which costs me money, but we are willing to share it to ensure that justice prevails.
ARAN Logistics:
- A deregistered company as of 1 November 2022
- Not tax compliant
- Wants to liquidate but cannot afford too
- Managed by one person via email and WhatsApp from his home
- Fraud
- Exploits foreign workers (who are illegal Zimbabweans)
If you have been affected by ARAN Logistics, don't hesitate to get in touch with me at +27 83 391 9242. We know where all your items are!
