The star rating is based on the service, not the boots themselves. In fact, I LOVE the boots. I wish the website had explained the sizing better. The size I ordered was too big, so I had to return the boots. Although I love amazon.com for ordering items, I will never use it again for clothing/shoes because of the return hassle. I got a great promo deal at the time I ordered these boots, but lost out when I had to return them. I was charged for the return (which is why I will use Zappos - free shipping both ways - in the future for shoe purchases), the order took a long time to arrive, and my promotional deal was negated. The boots themselves were nice (although the wrong size for me) and the price on amazon.com beat any other price I was able to find online. When my package arrived, the shoebox inside was smashed, but it did not affect the boots themselves. Overall, I would have been satisfied if I did not have to pay for return shipping & could just replace the size & still benefit from the promotion at the time I ordered. But since that was not the case, I would have to say I am NOT satisfied with my purchase. On the positive side, there was nothing wrong or disappointing about the boots.