To sit at the petrol pump for half an hour?!

[honeybeeridiculous]

Right, just been to put some petrol in my car. Pulled up at a pump, started to put petrol in, only £20 so it didn't take long.
Meanwhile white van man pulled up behind me, the pump was closed so he was waiting to use my pump, fair enough
Anyway, I went into shop to pay, 2 people infront of me, all straightforward and quick.
I go back to my car after paying and white van man was revving his engine and getting closer and closer to my car, this is before I got in the car
I get in the car and he continues to rev the engine and then beeped his horn.
I was about to pull away, but the rage got me so I just sat there, got my sunglasses out and put them on, zipped my bag up etc as he was being so rude! After 2 mins I pulled away as I thought he might get out and thump me!
But honestly, how rude!
Just wondered WWYD? WIBU?

Most of the 'man with van' business types I know advertise themselves on business cards etc as 'White Van Man'.

Anyway, any update of "half an hour" in the thread title?

Yes, Boney and some aren't acceptable now. Although words change and go in and out of fashion.

On a site on which people gleefully use 'cunt' - a lot - or any other swear word - I cannot believe that posters are picking on the phrase 'white van man' to pull the have-a-pop-at-the-working-class-why-don't-you line. Pathetic.

I thought it was obvious that the 'half an hour' was wrt whether the OP would have been unreasonable to have sat there that long, mintyy.

I'm afraid that if you hear the phrase "white van man" and "the working classes" immediately spring to mind it says a lot about your mindset than the person using the phrase.

It's just ludicrous to associate a vehicle type with a whole class of people. Honestly, the op comes on to complain about the aggressive behaviour of some random bloke and instead of concerning yourselves with that you pontificate about whether that phrase is offensive or not. Ha ha.

Bowlers

People find different things offensive and put different imagery/associations with words.

As you say phrases go in and out of fashion, but some are removed from common usage as the majority find them offensive.

But not white van man, Boney.

MrsWinnibago - I must admit that "White Van Man" to me, means some toad who drives like an arse, is always in a hurry & thinks everyone else should just f*ck off of their roads.

I don't know or care what class they are, but I do know that 90% of the time they fit that description perfectly!!!

At the petrol stations I use, there is nowhere to move the car that would allow another person to use the pump. I try to pay at pump if it's available or otherwise have to go into the kiosk to pay.

But I would definitely slow down if someone got aggressive on me as in the OP. Luckily, that doesn't seem to happen in my area.

YAbu
There is nothing to be gained by entering into a combative exchange in such circumstances. It could all get nasty and you'd be worse off

The half hour in the title was 'would I have been unreasonable to sit there for half an hour' I know I couldn't have sat there that long but I sure felt like it!
There is nowhere in the garage I used to pull over, unless I parked at the 'air station' but then would of got abused for that!
there was a pay at pump space free but I only had cash, and wvm obviously had cash too, otherwise he wouldn't have been up my arse, so to speak
I stand by what I did and would do it again if the same happened again.

honey I was at a petrol pump and an arsey bloke behind me blasted his horn and shouted "Can't you fucking move forward"
He then did a show off screechy manouever, got in front of my car and reversed practically onto my bonnet.

How I laughed (silently) when he saw that the petrol pump had those "Out of Use" covers on which was why I hadn't moved forward

70isalimit I feel we need a "smirk" emoticom.

You can take two payments on a petrol pump. A lot of garages (normal quick shop garages as opposed to the ones with bar stools and costa coffees inside) don't like to do this however unless it is really busy/some kind of problem at the tills - it is confusing and one of the things garages get marked on with their mystery shopper surveys (which head offices take seriously) is knowing which customer belongs to which pump and which petrol is theirs.

OP YANBU and WVM and Chelsea tractor are both common phrases here in East Mids and I've never heard any class stereostype connotations in it - just idiocy across all classes.

But Arf at MrsW and "I won't have it"

Thanks never
And arf @ 7is

I remember reading that it was Sarah Kennedy who first coined the phrase, back when she presented the Dawn Patrol on Radio 2. And BMW drivers definitely have a reputation.... I have to say that every single one of them that I have ever met has sadly lived down to it. Weird!

Winnebago is an American motorhome, isn't it? I've heard of White Van Man, Chelsea Tractors (fuck-off big 4X4s in the centre of town, not necessarily London) and BMW Man, but should Winnebago Woman now be a "thing"?

Oh and. Honey no YWNBU. He was very rude and tried to intimidate you. I wonder if you had been a massive bloke would he have tried that. Actually. I know the answer to that one. Good on you for not letting the creep intimidate you.

It's really funny when people say 'What is an old man's pub?' (as people did on another thread) and 'What is a white van man?,' playing dumb, trying to act offended on behalf of us poor working class folk. Get a tougher skin and stop being so 'holier than thou.'

All this talk of 'class' is stupid, elitist nonsense anyway. If someone is an asshole, they're an asshole. I don't care what bloody pay band they're on.

Kids I am fucking working class thanks.

Yeah but you don't speak for all of us MrsW, and most of us on this thread aren't offended by the phrase and don't consider it a class issue. I've never met anyone RL that has either.

And I completely agree with YourKids last post. An arsehole will be an arsehole whatever class you pigeon hole him/her as. We're not all the salt of the earth, and the middle classes are not all pearl clutching fools. Much like the north/south divide it can be funny to make jokes about it, but once you start to take it too seriously you've lost the plot. People are individuals regardless of geography and income.

YourKids -- my black, middle class heart just fell a bit in love with you.

Exactly

[equal opportunity asshole]

This isn't about class. It's about gender. He wouldn't have done it to a bloke.

OP, YANBU. There is an epidemic of aggressive driver behaviour - especially that directed by men at women - and it's lethal. As a society, we're far too tolerant of this low-level, ubiquitous twattery.