Yahoo merchant checkout service suffers glitches
Updated at 4:50 p.m. Monday, November 26 to include more info from Yahoo.
It's "Cyber Monday" and you want to get some online bargains. Well, beware of sites powered by Yahoo Merchant Solutions, at least for now.
Apparently, "many" of the 40,000 merchants in the program are reporting that shoppers are receiving error messages saying "system unavailable" during the checkout process, Yahoo spokeswoman Kristen Wareham said in an e-mail.
"Due to heavy holiday traffic on Yahoo-powered merchant stores, some consumers have not been able to complete online transactions. We are aware of the issues and are working towards a solution as quickly as possible," Wareham said.
"Yahoo makes every effort to prevent outages and has a better-than-average record with this issue," she said. "We continue to put strategies in place that will minimize the impact that extremely heavy traffic periods have on our merchants."
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
