New online retailer?

Dr.Jeff

True Classic
I was searching on Google for a automotive part by its part number, just to see what kind of prices I could find on it. One of the hits was for a online shopping site called "Ystatau.com", with a really good price (the lowest of anywhere I found). I've never heard of Ystatau, but then again there have been many online shopping sites come up that I'd never heard of, so that doesn't mean much. I wasn't planning to buy the part right away so just made a note of it for later.

A week or so after that I wanted to look again but could not remember the site and wasn't able to find my note on it. So I repeated the Google search like before. However this time I did not get that hit, so figured it must have been a limited stock item that sold quickly given the great price.

Then I came across my note (with the website name) and went to it. The part is still available and still a fantastic price. But I'm not 100% sure about this online retailer. The home page looks like they should sell pretty much everything, sort of like Amazon or eBay. But the drop down menus and listings are just automotive stuff. Seems a little odd. I tried running a check on Google to find out more about the site. But apparently it is very new and there isn't really any info about it yet; nothing good, but also nothing bad. One "review" described it as a food delivery site, although that particular review was not very well put together and that might be an error.

The URL verifies correctly, the certificate is valid, the connection is secure, payment is SSL by credit card (so you are protected), no security warnings come up on my virus protection, and nothing about the actual site appears to be fake...just a bit odd. It is an international site with choice of currency and language (not sure where the physical location is), and it is brand new - apparently it started a few months ago. So I just can't tell.

Has anyone heard of "Ystatau"? Or does anyone know a way to verify it better? Please take a look, how does it appear to you?
 
Just to add...

I've been looking around the site more and the merchandise is strictly automotive products. I'm not sure why the top of the "home" page also has pictures of furniture, clothes and toys in addition to automotive products. That might have been a standard web page format they implemented. It is a rather large site with loads of merchandise.

The actual listings appear to be of legitimate parts and they cover a wide range, like you might find on one of the 'big box' part store websites. The brands and items offered run the full spectrum in terms of quality and selection, both factory and aftermarket. Including items from several USA companies, Chinese makers, European sources, etc, it even appears there are actual "Fiat" manufactured parts as well. I entered "Fiat" into the search box and roughly five hundred items came up. Mostly for newer models (including ones we never saw), some 124 Spider things, lots of 'new 500' stuff, even Fiat tractors. I did not look for anything specific to the X.

The prices generally are very good but not so low as to raise questions (like a scam site would).

Overall the site appears legit, although there are a few small inconsistencies here and there...the type of stuff you might see on a foreign site translated into English or a new site that hasn't been completely refined yet. Just enough to make me not certain. However with payment being by credit card I guess there really isn't a risk?

I haven't filled out a user account yet, although I don't think it is required to make a purchase. For now I'm hoping someone can give some input about the site.

For what it's worth, for years I've been buying loads of parts from companies located in various parts of the world. They often have similar website issues due to language or culture differences. Even AliExpress can look questionable at times. But that's no indication about this particular site.
 
A3A8A18D-A7BD-4405-B388-3F4589F49B19.png

Domain Creation Date
2020-09-23

They do offer almost all products you can think of, not just car stuff.
And all that and they didn‘t register their name until 3 months ago?
Yeah right.
I bet they only take orders, and never ship a thing.
 
View attachment 40330

Domain Creation Date
2020-09-23

They do offer almost all products you can think of, not just car stuff.
And all that and they didn‘t register their name until 3 months ago?
Yeah right.
I bet they only take orders, and never ship a thing.
Drop shippers. The web is becoming inundated with them. And the people who run them make millions. And then they’re gone, and you never know where the product actually came from? Worth investigating if it’s an expensive purchase.
 
View attachment 40330

Domain Creation Date
2020-09-23

They do offer almost all products you can think of, not just car stuff.
And all that and they didn‘t register their name until 3 months ago?
Yeah right.
I bet they only take orders, and never ship a thing.
Did you see products other than automotive related?
The review site you reference looks like the same one (only one of two) that I saw with any mention of it. And this was the one that stated something about it being a food delivery service. However that review site isn't very well organized or structured either. So I don't know how accurate it is. But their mention of the recent date for the domain registration is interesting.
 
Drop shippers. The web is becoming inundated with them. And the people who run them make millions. And then they’re gone, and you never know where the product actually came from? Worth investigating if it’s an expensive purchase.
I wouldn't mind if they are just a drop ship site, so long as I got the merchandise. It's a question of the merchandise ever being shipped that I'm concerned about. However as I mentioned, my credit card accounts are extremely well established with a very long history of perfect ratings. So I have no worries of them not backing me should something go wrong. It's more a matter of having to bother with it. But the item I'm looking at is about $250, so I certainly would not let it pass.
 
Another thought:
Even if you get you $250 back from the CC company, the crooks behind the website get to keep „your“ money.
I would not want that to happen if it was my money.

I really like the quote „if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is“.
 
If you do plan to buy from that site, you might try buying an inexpensive item, using a "new" credit card. It's a real PITA to have the CC company shut down your card because of fraud. A lot easier to cancel a "burner" CC card.
I had one of mine shut down recently because someone put a $0 charge on it. Dry run to confirm the number? The CC card company wouldn't comment.
 
For instance:
However that is under the "RV" category and appears to be mostly camping or recreation type furniture rather than household stuff. There's also motorcycle gear and other things that are transportation related but not necessarily "parts". But everything seems to be centered around vehicles - no general merchandise. And the overall inventory is quite large. So I'm guessing they were another retailer or possibly wholesaler before this site? I know you can also buy into what is effectively a franchise from some very large distributors that supply the merchandise, you just market it and process the sales while they handle the inventory and shipping. Might be something like that.
 
If you do plan to buy from that site, you might try buying an inexpensive item, using a "new" credit card. It's a real PITA to have the CC company shut down your card because of fraud. A lot easier to cancel a "burner" CC card.
I had one of mine shut down recently because someone put a $0 charge on it. Dry run to confirm the number? The CC card company wouldn't comment.
I have a couple of credit cards that rarely get used. So that might be a good idea, to keep the purchase isolated to one of those cards. Actually I rarely use any credit cards, so now and then I have to force myself to use them to avoid having them cancelled for inactivity.
There's been a couple incidents over the years where someone attempted to use one of my accounts fraudulently. And as you say they usually try to make a very small charge first to test it. But I've never had any difficulties getting it sorted. In fact it has always been the card company that brought it to my attention and they had already taken care of it before I even knew about it. The only bank that I've ever found difficult to deal with was BofA. But that was an account and not a credit card.

The prices on this site are not necessarily "too good to be true". Most items I viewed were decent but not excessively underpriced. The item I'm considering is a great deal, but realistic given the huge markup in the automotive parts industry. I'd say it compares to what we used to call a "jobber" price; somewhere in between wholesale and retail, or about 25% off full retail. You will often find that much off from large discount sources. It just happens the specific item in this case isn't offered by any of the large discount sellers that I've found.
I might take a look on the site for other products from the same brand (part manufacturer) to see if this is typical of the pricing for their goods. I know from experience some manufacturers offer better wholesale pricing than others, but it usually is consistent across their line of products.
 
I had forgotten all about this. I was in no hurry for the item so I decided to hold off on any purchases and see if any reports (good or bad) came up on this newly formed online retailer. Today something reminded me of it so I looked again. The company has since gone out of business. I still find several positive reports from site "monitoring" sources, nothing adverse about the whole operation. I did come across one buyer that made a purchase just about the time they went under and did not receive anything. However he also states some very odd sounding claims of email communications being backdated(?) and other inexplicable events. So I question his whole report. But it doesn't matter because legit or not the company did not survive the pandemic. It was just about the peak of the virus situation when I looked at them the first time. And a couple months later they closed down, as did many other businesses. I just wanted to update this thread in the event someone happened across it and was interested in possibly buying from them.
 
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