A Recent Interaction with Venmo Left Me Wondering

I recently went to GoFundMe.com to make a donation.  I chose the option to pay for my donation with Venmo.  The GFM website redirected me to Venmo and I had the option of getting a one-time password or logging in.  I chose to log in, which went successfully.  They still gave me a one-time password to my mobile device, so I entered the number provided in the text in the Venmo UI.  I was then presented with a message that Venmo rejected my transaction and the GoFundMe payment did not go through. I tried it again and got the same response.  What I received next is a text asking me to reset my Venmo password:

In my experience with online and mobile banking, this user experience is very poor.  After successfully entering in password and an out-of-band challenge, what reason would there be for Venmo to ask me (via text at that) to change my password?  I logged into my Venmo account from my computer so I could review the messages there and there was no notification, no indication that my transaction had been rejected.  So the fact that there was no indication on the Venmo site of my attempted/rejected transaction made the reset password text seem even more sketchy.  So, I started a chat session with Venmo to troubleshoot the situation.

Here is my chat transcript w Venmo.  You have to get past the chatbot questions first but I noticed that like many chatbots, it provides information or possible solutions that are not remotely associated with my transaction. In this example, it is asking me to call my card provide even though this transaction was a direct debit to my banking account.

Chat Transcript with David Peterson

Chat started on 05 Oct 2024, 02:00 PM (GMT+0)

(02:00:23)

*** Visitor 42328376 joined the chat ***

(02:00:23)

Visitor 42328376 <BOT CONVERSATION TRANSCRIPT> Venmo Assistant: I’m the new Venmo chatbot! 🤖 I can answer lots of questions but I’m still learning. How can I help? Venmo Assistant: You can type things like “When will my bank transfer arrive?” or choose a topic below. Guest: My Transactions Venmo Assistant: I can help with transaction history related questions. Please choose an option below. Guest: None of these Venmo Assistant: No problem. Let’s see if we can find the right topic to help you today. Venmo Assistant: Please try rephrasing your question or choose one of the common topics below. Guest: Declines Venmo Assistant: I understand there’s an issue with a decline. Please choose an option below. Guest: Payment declined Venmo Assistant: If you received an error that your payment was declined, it’s best to contact your card issuer. The fastest way to reach them is by calling the number on the back of your card. Venmo Assistant: Venmo is unable to see the exact reason why the payment was declined. Calling the number on the back of the card should help out! Venmo Assistant: If you’ve already checked with your bank, you can try another payment method or try again later. If it’s urgent, try sending the payment via another method such as through our parent company, <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.paypal.com”>PayPal</a>. Venmo Assistant: Your Venmo account also has limits on how much money can be sent weekly. Learn more about these limits here: <a target=”_blank” href=”https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/221010968”>Payment Limits</a>. Venmo Assistant: Did this help resolve the issue or question you had? Guest: No, I need more help Venmo Assistant: Would you like me to connect you with a live agent? Guest: Yes Venmo Assistant: I’ve transferred this conversation to an agent. Venmo Assistant: Depending on demand, there may be a short wait – we’ll show you how many customers are ahead of you in line.

OK, it’s no secret that chatbots are not the most reliable of customer support.  Once I got transferred to a live agent, I described the situation and asked for an explanation:

(02:00:41)

(167) Celine F  Hello David! I hope you're beyond excellent. This is Celine from Venmo Support, and I'll be more than glad to assist you today.

(02:01:37)

David Peterson Was trying to use Venmo this morning to pay for GoFundMe donation. It was declined. If I am trying to use Venmo and I get a text to reset my Venmo password, that that appears to be a scam and I use another form of payment.  I had a valid login for my Venmo account, I got a code on my phone and provided that - for what legit reason would Venmo require a password reset while performing a transaction?

(02:02:17)

David Peterson Here is the Venmo email So we can verify it's you, use this link to reset your password, then go back to GoFundMe to complete your purchase with Venmo: https://venmo.com/account/password-new?reset_key=f1542163b7add0bd9f8e854adad46fc30870ffbb426c40f291c39cb43ae4ad31&client=phone&utm_medium=phone&ts=1728137104&user_external_id=3446818486617352389

(02:02:38)

(167) Celine F  Oh! Thanks for bringing this to our attention, David. Don't worry, I'll go ahead and pull up your account to see why your transaction is being declined.

(02:04:01)

(167) Celine F  I appreciate your patience, David. I took a closer look on your account and saw this declined attempt:  authorization - GoFundMe for $595.00 on 10/05/24

(02:04:33)

David Peterson Yes, that is what I was trying to pay using Venmo

(02:05:04)

(167) Celine F  Alright, thanks for confirming David. I know it's not ideal when your purchase did not go through as expected. Don't worry, I'll connect you to one of our Purchase Support teammates so they can quickly check on this!

(02:05:10)

*** (167) Celine F has transferred chat to Purchase Support ***

OK, so first “live” agent couldn’t provide any meaningful help so they transferred me to a 2nd support person.  My question here is since there was already a record if my issue, why did an agent who did not have the capability to provide support take the chat session?  Definitely a customer experience fail but OK, let’s see what I get from the next agent:

(02:05:19)

*** (166) Rosalito M. joined the chat ***

(02:05:25)

(166) Rosalito M. Thanks for contacting Venmo! Rosalito here and I'm happy to help out. Please give me a moment while I take a look at your account.

(02:05:27)

*** (167) Celine F left the chat ***

(02:08:40)

(166) Rosalito M. Hi, David! Thank you for your patience while I looked into your account. I see that you chatted us today about this GoFundMe transaction that you are doing in your Venmo. I'd be happy to take a look into that for you!

(02:12:33)

(166) Rosalito M. Upon checking here, it seems that our security system is declining the transaction to GoFundMe. This generally happens because a security flag is being raised but letting you know that you did not do anything wrong here as these flags are automated by Venmo. In cases like this, I recommend trying another payment method, like PayPal, so you can complete your transaction to the merchant.

(02:14:53)

David Peterson Interesting. You are not disclosing WHY it was declined?? Why not share that?

(02:18:11)

David Peterson ??

(02:18:22)

(166) Rosalito M. If we were provided more details about why this purchase wasn’t processed as expected, please know I would offer this information to you.  You can try this payment again with a different payment method. Keep in mind that each attempt will go through a similar automated review. You’re still welcome to try your purchase again.

The agent is simply saying that the transaction was rejected due to “a security flag” but didn’t say why or what the flag was.  They also claim that they didn’t get information from the link from GFM that indicated why it was declined. I find this highly unlikely.  Either way, this doesn’t help because I have no way to remediate my behavior using the service if I don’t know what the rules are on performing transactions.  My transaction was $595, so this was not a high limit transaction.  I pressed for an explanation:

(02:19:37)

David Peterson I used an alternative payment.  So, answer my original question - I had a valid login for my Venmo account, I got a code on my phone and provided that - for what legit reason would Venmo require a password reset while performing a transaction?

(02:22:40)

(166) Rosalito M. It could also be result of an internal process in the Venmo security system to require users to change password just in case they have signed in to their Venmo account for quite sometime. These things are automated to ensure security is being put on top of whoever is logging in to the account.

(02:25:34)

David Peterson I’m not interested in what it “could be” I want to know why. It’s a very poor user experience. I logged into my Venmo account while attempting to- being denied to complete this transaction w Venmo. Nothing, no notice or record of my attempt to pay GoFundMe.  Can you transfer this chat to someone w the appropriate knowledge to answer my questions?

(02:28:40)

(166) Rosalito M. I’m sorry that we haven’t been able to come to a better resolution for your case. I’d be happy to escalate your case to a supervisor for another look. They’ll follow up with you via email as soon as possible, typically within about an hour during our operating hours, but can take up to 24 hours. Can I check with you if you have access to your email on file which is david@voiceoverus.com?

(02:30:58)

David Peterson Yes that is a good email. BTW, can you email me a chat transcript of this whole convo?  I actually just got a chat transcript but it was from someone else’s chat w Venmo, can you be sure not to send my chat transcript to anyone other than me??

So, I didn’t get an answer for my question, and there was no option to speak to anyone that could answer my question. Worse, she told me what it “could be” which in reality means nothing.   Making matters way worse, I received a transcript from another customer’s Venmo chat, not exactly giving me a warm and fuzzy feeling about Venmo’s security procedures:

Venmo transcript of another customer’s chat session:

I ended the chat with the promise that a supervisor would call me and that they would not send my chat transcript to another Venmo customer.  I have no idea if they sent my chat to anyone else but I do know that no call has been received by a Venmo supervisor.

So what is the purpose for my disclosing this whole scenario?  Venmo is a very popular service and millions of people, particularly young people use it for regular transaction activity.  So when there are major security and customer experience fails like the one I experienced, it makes me question whether Paypal (who owns Venmo) has the proper attitude towards making the payment systems used by so many safe, reliable and with a stellar customer experience.  Many people including some US Senators, are looking at these payment systems as a target of fraudulent transactions by unscrupulous bad actors.  And I believe that most of the rhetoric about these payment systems is unfounded.  But if Venmo is regularly performing as poorly as my recent example indicates, then I wonder whether some of the concern is warranted.

If I get any response from Venmo based on my chat, I’ll give you an update … but I’m not holding my breath …