I used to chuckle at reviewers who started their review by telling readers they only gave one star because they couldn't give zero, but now I'm one of them. My order for a pair of Keen shoes was a debacle from the beginning.

I was looking at two different pairs of shoes on two different websites, one of which was keenfootwear.com. Both sites were running Memorial Day sales and the cost of the shoes I wanted was similar on both websites. On Keen's website, however, they offered an additional $10 off if I signed up for their newsletter. With the additional $10 off, Keen's shoes were a bit cheaper. I decided to order from Keen.

With Keen's shoes in my cart, everything appeared in order. The price Keen showed was the correct sale price and included the additional $10 off and shipping was shown as free (See screenshot1). I used PayPal to pay. Beware if you use PayPal on Keen's website. PayPal offers no confirmation screen after hitting the "Pay with PayPal" button. Once you hit PayPal's button, the buyer winds up paying whatever the retailer charges to his PayPal account. Unfortunately, PayPal allows a retailer to charge whatever amount they want to the buyer's PayPal account irrespective of what the retailer told the buyer the price would be. PayPal gave me no opportunity to confirm that the price Keen was actually charging my PayPal account was the same price Keen showed for the shoes in my cart. Well, guess what? It wasn't. Keen charged my PayPal account $10 more than they told me the shoes would cost when they were in my cart on the Keen website (See screenshot2). They added a $10 charge for shipping despite showing free shipping when the shoes were in my cart, effectively reneging on the additional $10 discount I got for signing up for their newsletter. Without the additional discount, the Keen shoes were no longer the cheaper of the two I was considering.

I emailed Keen's customer service right away and told them I felt cheated, and I wanted to cancel my order. I got a response from Erica at Keen who gave me vague assurances that she would pass my complaint on to the proper team who would make everything right. Erica told me if I still wanted to cancel my order to let her know, and that she was "looking forward" to my reply. I immediately responded to Erica that I didn't trust a company that just tried to cheat me out of $10, so I wanted details. I asked her to tell me how much of a credit Keen was offering and how they intended to get that credit to me.

Silence.

I got no response from Erica. I guess she wasn't looking forward to my reply that much.

An hour and a half later, still without any response to my earlier request for details, I emailed Erica again and told her without specific information on the credit she vaguely offered, I didn't want the shoes and told her to cancel my order. I then placed an order for the other pair of shoes I was looking at. I had to act quickly because their Memorial Day sale price was ending that day.

It was pretty bad up to this point, but it got worse.

Two days after telling Erica to cancel my order, and without any further response from Erica, I got an email from Keen telling me my order shipped! So, I had two pairs of shoes in transit.

The Keen email telling me my order shipped included a link that said:

"NEED HELP? | Our customer service team is here to help! | Click here to get into contact."

I clicked the link. I told them my sad story. I called them dirty names. I got an auto-responder telling me how much they love hearing from their "fans" and that it typically takes 1-2 days for customer service to reply. Thirteen days later, I got a response from Cat at customer service. By this time, the shoes had been returned and received by Keen at their facility in Kentucky.

Cat apologized for the "confusion" about my return (but not for trying to cheat me out of $10) and assured me I would receive a full refund within a week, including my shipping charges. Cat told me that refunding the shipping overcharge was a "one-time courtesy," suggesting that Keen will cheat me with impunity on future orders.

In addition to the complaint I made to Keen, I also opened a complaint in PayPal's Resolution Center to complain about Keen's overcharge. I told PayPal my sad Keen story. I also took the opportunity to give PayPal a piece of my mind for enabling shady retailers like Keen to cheat people by allowing the retailer to charge a PayPal account more than the retailer told the customer the item was going to cost. Despite sending PayPal screenshots of: 1) my order in Keen's cart showing the cost to be $86 with free shipping; and, 2) the actual charge Keen made to my PayPal account of $96 ($86 for the shoes and $10 for shipping), PayPal denied my claim. "Based on the merchant's response and the information we have to date, we have denied your case," they told me. PayPal said I could request, by mail, all the documentation they used to arrive at their decision. I did mail in my request for the documents but haven't received them yet. (UPDATE: Six months after requesting the documentation PayPal used to deny my claim, I still haven't received it. I'm guessing I won't ever receive it. I used to love PayPal and looked for opportunities to use them. They were easy to use and fair with buyers in the event of transaction problems. However, their ongoing expansion from their lowly beginnings as a Ebay payment service to an internet-wide e-payment service has put them squarely in the corner of sellers over buyers. My experience with them on this transaction is evidence of that.)

I'll only use PayPal on future online orders when I have to. They've failed to own up to their part in this disaster. PayPal is the cheater's enabler. I'm done with PayPal, too.

But wait, there's more!

Two days after denying my claim, I got a second email from PayPal telling me my claim is approved, and I have a credit waiting for me in the amount of the shipping charge. Happy days! The second email references the same Dispute Case ID number as the first email but didn't mention that PayPal had already denied the claim. PayPal just pretended the first email didn't happen. Go figure. A few days later, Keen refunded the cost of the shoes. Between the (ultimately) approved shipping claim from PayPal and the shoes refund from Keen, I got back all the money that I paid on an order I never would have placed if Keen had been honest about how much they were going to charge me.

I've always heard good things about Keen's footwear. My wife owns a pair of hiking shoes and likes them. The product is good, but the people are scoundrels. They overcharged me. They communicated poorly and arrogantly. They shipped when I told them to cancel. Most importantly to me, they've never acknowledged that the origin of this fiasco was Keen telling me the price was $86 but then charging me $96. It was a comedy of errors: all theirs, all preventable by simply charging me the amount they told me the shoes cost. That's what all the honest retailers do.

There are plenty of reputable companies that sell comparable quality, outdoor footwear: Merrell, Teva, Salomon, Rockport, Timberland, etc. Consumers don't have to deal with shysters like Keen. Cat, if you're listening, you don't have to worry about me trying to get future unjust shipping charges reversed. I'm not keen on Keen. I'll never deal with them again.