Apologies in advance this is a long one. At first I thought this may be similar to issues noted in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T352916, but I think these are moreso new issues.

For context we are advising donors that "Venmo is offered as a payment method on most current and modern browsers. On a mobile device, Venmo is only fully supported on your native browser, or the browser that was already installed on your device when it was purchased. For example, on an iPhone, Venmo must be used with Safari; on an Android, Venmo must be used with Google Chrome."

Donor in Zendesk ticket #1816363 / CID 69793681 reported issues donating via Venmo and noted "I’ve made multiple attempts to donate through Venmo, which won’t seem to connect with Wikipedia. Venmo has always worked fine with other transactions." and then on a follow up message "It wasn’t an error message. My Venmo account confirmed the transfer and I was then sent back to this page." The donor then provided the screenshot below.

They haven't advised what browser or device they are using but comparing all the browsers based on how the address bar appears in the screenshot they have provided I think they are using iPhone + Safari which is the recommended browser for that device. I was also able to recreate an issue while attempting to donate via iPhone + Safari.

Each of my attempts in various browsers detailed below:

Attempt 1

1. With Chrome selected as the default browser on the device.
2. Started the donation attempt at Safari selected an amount and was sent to Venmo as normal.
3. Was taken back to Chrome and then was sent to the thank you page. Donation processed successfully.

Not ideal to be taken to Chrome but it's what I have encountered previously in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T352916. However was suprised that I didn't have to go back to Safari for it to complete as I have had to previously.

Attempt 2

1. Safari selected as the default browser on the device.
2. Once again initiated the donation via Safari, selected $1.45, and was sent to Venmo as normal.
3. Then taken back to Safari and nothing happened similar to what the donor is reporting I wasn't sent to the thank you page and didn't receive any notifications from Venmo. The page just sat there with no indication that anything was loading I finally just clicked anywhere on the page and finally was taken to the ty page. See screenshots below.

Attempt 3

1. Brave browser changed to default on the device.
2. Initiated the donation via the Brave browser selected $1.62 and was taken to Venmo.
3. Similar to the Safari attempt I was taken back to this donation page shown in the screenshot below and nothing happened and wasn't taken to the thank you page. I decided to set a timer wait 1 minute and then clicked anywhere on our page and got an error message.
4. Despite receiving this error message the donation of $1.62 still went through and can be see below and on CID 52517029.

I tested this numerous times and I think on some of these instances despite receiving error messages or not getting to the thank you page some of my donation attempts made it through. The attempts detailed above were made with my spouses CID which you can see in > CID 52517029. I also did some attempts on mine in > CID 68209875.

Takeaways:

1. There seems to be a delay when using Safari and you're not taken to the thank you page immediately. As I noted above I waited a bit and after I clicked into the donation page it finally took me to the thank you page but there was no indication what was occurring.
2. Despite receiving an error message in Attempt 3 when using Brave browser I was still billed and the donation appears in Civi.
3. Venmo is not shown as an option on iPhone + Chrome, but is displaying on iPhone + Brave. If Venmo only works on iPhone + Safari should it also be disabled for Brave?