eBay will discontinue access to Checkout Redirect through the Andale platform beginning on February 1, 2006, the company said in an email to customers on Monday. Andale experienced severe technical difficulties in late October and early November (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m11/i02/s03). eBay said it is taking action "because Andale has not been able to reliably meet required standards of availability."

An email apparently sent by Andale to customers on Monday said in part,

"Andale has been a good partner of eBay's for over six years. In fact, we were the first auction management company to offer a seamless buyer checkout. Many other third party providers and eBay, itself, have duplicated our pioneering checkout innovations, as well as our other product innovations. Therefore, we were disappointed that eBay chose this route.

We believe that such actions can have far reaching consequences for all eBay third party vendors and partners and will ultimately harm the ability of third parties to innovate and provide services to eBay sellers. We ask that you support us by contacting eBay to let them know how much you value our Checkout system and the innovations that Andale has provided over the past six years. You can send your emails to developer-relations@ebay.com to let them know your concerns about them taking this kind of action against one of their third party vendors and partners."

Munjal Shah co-founded Andale in 1999, where he raised over $60 million in financing, launched sites in Germany, UK and Australia, and, in 2003, moved much of the company's operations from Mountain View, California to Bangalore, India. Shah stepped down from Andale in 2004 and was replaced by Linda Hayes, current CEO.

The Checkout Redirect feature allows sellers to direct buyers to their Andale checkout system where they have set up their preferences and automatic email correspondence. Sellers can also use checkout systems to allow buyers to combine items so they can take advantage of reduced shipping rates and make one payment for multiple purchases. Some sellers also use checkout to cross-promote and upsell buyers on additional items.

An Andale customer wrote about the email he received from eBay, "Although I am none to happy with Andale over the problems they have had, I will be even more unhappy with Ebay if they do this! Do you realize the logistical nightmare we will face with this! I have no desire to go to another service provider and rebuild my auctions let alone my website that is used to cross sell my items on my website when an ebay sale sells!"

http://corp.andale.com/x-outage.html