The code below does not return any errors and I can make it return data from process.php however on process.php I am checking for "message" like this: Here is my jquery code below, dataString shows "message=WHATEVER I TYPE IN THE TEXTAREA" when I use alert (dataString); but it act like it is not being sent to the processing.php script, I am at a dead end right now If i go to www.url.com/processing.php?message=whatever then the php script shows what you would expect. Also it seem the ajax part is working because it will return a response to the script if I have the php script output something without wrapping it in my if statement What could the problem be?