Consumer Alert: Snow Chain Price Gouging
December 21, 2008 by Grant
It’s come to our attention in the last few days that there have been a number of incidents around Seattle involving auto parts stores gouging customers on the sale of snow chains. In Redmond, one local shop was charging $89.99 for a standard set of generic snow chains. Is your store ripping you off?
To know if you’re paying a reasonable price for your chains, you have to take into account the brand and also the quality of chain you are buying. Most consumer chains are like this pair of snow chains from BikeBatt that are listed on Amazon for $39.95. These closely resemble the type of chains you can find at Les Schwab or Firestone. You should never be paying more than $60 for these type of chains and are probably being overcharged if you are.
A common manufacturer of snow chains is Thule, a reputable and high quality brand. Thule has an entry level snow chain listed at $71.95. Made of manganese nickel steel alloy, these are far more durable and apt to last the battering that chains take on the road. Thules carry a premium – especially if not buying online – and are one of the few brands that you can expect to pay a premium price for.
It’s common for stores to be completely sold out of generic snow chains and entry level Thules, leaving only the expensive $100 – $200 Thule chains. In these situations, it’s simply an issue of inventory rather than price gouging. That said, unless you are doing some serious winter driving or drive a particularly heavy SUV, you will have no need for any chains over $100.
Another mid-entry brand is Security, which lists a consumer level snow cable for $67.14. These are one of the modern types of fast installing cable chains and also perform just as well as Thule. So, for well performing snow chains and cables, expect to pay anywhere from $70 to $90, and less for the generic brands.
Do you live in Seattle and think you got ripped off on your snow chains? Leave a comment and let us know!
I recently was directed to Les Schwab for a generic set of snow chains by my step Father, he had bought a set of chains for his 2007 Infiniti G30 4 door Sedan.
He paid $25.
I called in advance and then drove to a LS, the fellow at the counter had said that they were out fo chains, but that their S. Auburn store had just gotten them in, they were $81 including tax.
Had I known they were going to cost me that much I would have bought the Thule THULE CS 10’s for not much more?