Laura - the 324 is the campus pedal SPD and it has a lot of 'stuff' around it to get snagged up on your shoe treads. I have experience with SPD and I have found that sometimes certain shoes just do NOT play well with them. I have also discovered that the Crankbrother's Eggbeaters (the one's with no platform) are super easy to get in and out of. They also have 4 sided entry which is nice. I use them for commuting and they work great, I don't have to think about it i just put my foot up there and 99.9% of the time they clip right in. I sounds like by the way you said you were stomping to get into the spds that the rubber on the shoe was interfering with the cleat and pedal actually touching. There's no shame in using platform pedals either but I was just trying to give you another option before you gave up on it completely.