SMTP Mail Sent & Received but success message not processing

After switching to production hosting environment, had to temporarily implement SMTP on sendemail.php. Implemented per documentation and email was received as intended, but I'm no longer getting the front-end success message as I was on our staging server without the SMTP setup. On the front-end, the form gets stuck with the spinning animation.

sendemail.php

 'firstrecipient@ourdomain.com', // Your Email Address
				'name' => 'First Recipient' // Your Name
			);
			
$toemails[] = array(
				'email' => 'secondrecipient@anotherdomain.com', // Your Email Address
				'name' => 'Second Recipient' // Your Name
			);			

// Form Processing Messages (THIS IS NOT GETTING PASSED CORRECTLY)
$message_success = 'We have **successfully** received your Message and will get Back to you as soon as possible.';

// Add this only if you use reCaptcha with your Contact Forms
$recaptcha_secret = ''; // Your reCaptcha Secret

$mail = new PHPMailer();

// If you intend you use SMTP, add your SMTP Code after this Line
$mail->IsSMTP();
$mail->Host = "mail.ourdomain.com";  //Confirmed correct
$mail->SMTPDebug = 2;
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Port = 25; //Confirmed correct
$mail->Username = "username@ourdomain.com";//confirmed correct
$mail->Password = "OuRpAsSwOrD";//confirmed correct (none of the comments in this section are in our actual code)

if( $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST' ) {
	if( $_POST['template-contactform-email'] != '' ) {

		$name = isset( $_POST['template-contactform-name'] ) ? $_POST['template-contactform-name'] : '';
		$email = isset( $_POST['template-contactform-email'] ) ? $_POST['template-contactform-email'] : '';
		$phone = isset( $_POST['template-contactform-phone'] ) ? $_POST['template-contactform-phone'] : '';
		$company = isset( $_POST['template-contactform-company'] ) ? $_POST['template-contactform-company'] : '';
		$subject = isset( $_POST['template-contactform-subject'] ) ? $_POST['template-contactform-subject'] : '';
		$message = isset( $_POST['template-contactform-message'] ) ? $_POST['template-contactform-message'] : '';

		$subject = isset($subject) ? $subject : 'New Message From Contact Form';

		$botcheck = $_POST['template-contactform-botcheck'];

		if( $botcheck == '' ) {

			$mail->SetFrom( $email , $name );
			$mail->AddReplyTo( $email , $name );
			foreach( $toemails as $toemail ) {
				$mail->AddAddress( $toemail['email'] , $toemail['name'] );
			}
			$mail->Subject = $subject;

			$name = isset($name) ? "Name: $name

" : '';
			$email = isset($email) ? "Email: $email

" : '';
			$phone = isset($phone) ? "Phone: $phone

" : '';
			$company = isset($company) ? "Firm or Company Name: $company

" : '';
			$message = isset($message) ? "Message: \n$message

" : '';

			$referrer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] ? '

This Form was submitted from: ' . $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] : '';

			$body = "$name $email $phone $company $message $referrer";

			// Runs only when File Field is present in the Contact Form
			if ( isset( $_FILES['template-contactform-file'] ) && $_FILES['template-contactform-file']['error'] == UPLOAD_ERR_OK ) {
				$mail->IsHTML(true);
				$mail->AddAttachment( $_FILES['template-contactform-file']['tmp_name'], $_FILES['template-contactform-file']['name'] );
			}

			// Runs only when reCaptcha is present in the Contact Form
			if( isset( $_POST['g-recaptcha-response'] ) ) {
				$recaptcha_response = $_POST['g-recaptcha-response'];
				$response = file_get_contents( "https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify?secret=" . $recaptcha_secret . "&response=" . $recaptcha_response );

				$g_response = json_decode( $response );

				if ( $g_response->success !== true ) {
					echo '{ "alert": "error", "message": "Captcha not Validated! Please Try Again." }';
					die;
				}
			}

			// Uncomment the following Lines of Code if you want to Force reCaptcha Validation

			// if( !isset( $_POST['g-recaptcha-response'] ) ) {
			// 	echo '{ "alert": "error", "message": "Captcha not Submitted! Please Try Again." }';
			// 	die;
			// }

			$mail->MsgHTML( $body );
			$sendEmail = $mail->Send();

			if( $sendEmail == true ):
				echo '{ "alert": "success", "message": "' . $message_success . '" }';
			else:
				echo '{ "alert": "error", "message": "Email **could not** be sent due to some Unexpected Error. Please Try Again later.

**Reason:**
' . $mail->ErrorInfo . '" }';
			endif;
		} else {
			echo '{ "alert": "error", "message": "Bot **Detected**.! Clean yourself Botster.!" }';
		}
	} else {
		echo '{ "alert": "error", "message": "Please **Fill up** all the Fields and Try Again." }';
	}
} else {
	echo '{ "alert": "error", "message": "An **unexpected error** occured. Please Try Again later." }';
}

?>

The form:

										

										
											
										
										
											
										
                                        
                                        
											
										
										
											
										

										

										
											
										

										
											
										

										
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