WooCommerce payment gateway woes

having a bit of a laugh (and a cry) with WooCommerce today. i'm trying to figure out why my orders are acting so weird.

• The Setup: my little store runs on woocommerce, and i use stripe for the payment gateway.
• The Problem: but lately, orders are stuck on 'pending payment' even when stripe says it's paid. also, some customers get a weird redirect loop after they pay, which is super annoying.
• The Ask: has anyone else seen these kinda issues with their payment gateway setup? am i missing some obvious checkbox or a common 'gotcha'?
• The Plea: genuinely asking for any tips or solutions here, before i pull out all my hair. thanks a bunch!