AIBU to have not given up my parking spot?

[KHR1606]

Sorry for the long post.....

I parked my car in the IKEA car park this morning. The bays next to me were for electric vehicles. I got out my car & went in the back to get my 18 month old DS out his car seat & to put his coat on. We then went to the boot to get his trike out. DS is stood next to me as I'm unfolding & securing the trike.

A woman then approaches me politely asking for my spot so she can charge her car. I look at the ground to see if I've parked in the electric bay. I see that I haven't & say "I can park here" she says, "I can too!" I politely say no because that'd mean me undoing the trike & putting it away then taking my son's coat off & putting him back in his seat then driving around for another spot. Just the thought of it wore me out! She offered to help but again I politely said I'm not willing to do it because it's just too much hassle.

The woman persisted & persisted & persisted, I'm not exaggerating. She kept saying I have an appointment & I need to charge my car. Again I said no. I said if I was without DS I would have given you my spot. She wouldn't stop asking so I got really fed up & shouted loudly, "Oh for f**k sake!" It's only then that she walked away to her car which was 2 bays away....... charging!!!!!

I didn't even realise her car was on charge because I was too busy getting DS in the trike. As I was strapping him in I heard her say "bitch", "evil", the sound of spitting but not actually spitting. All this time I was looking at DS's face talking & smiling with him. It's only when I was ready to walk off that I asked, "did you say something!?" She sarcastically smiled & said no!

She then went on again about it wouldn't have taken me long to move my car. I again repeated myself that I was parked in a suitable bay & I wasn't going to inconvenience myself & DS for her. I told her that being out with a child is sometimes difficult. She said I have a child too. I replied "Then you know! Stop being entitled!" All of this was being shouted. We had people looking at us.

I walked off and said have a lovely day!! It's only when I walked off & called my sister to vent that I realised her car was charging. Why the f**k did she want my spot then? Why ask a mother & toddler to move?
I'm glad I didn't move, especially after calling me a bitch and evil. She must not know about Jeffrey Dahmer if she thinks I'm evil!

Something is all very odd about this (and the Jeffrey Dahlmer comment is just… peculiar).

I suspect the OP was in a charging bay but didn’t realise when she pulled in (possibly but I would hazard a guess she knew)

The woman’s response though was unacceptable

Well they could have swapped presumably**

No they couldn't. OP I wouldn't have moved either. She was in a space charging her car. It's not your problem if it doesn't charge fast enough for her.

This. It’s the only thing that makes it make sense

If she wanted a space adjacent to a charging bay, that implies that the actual charging bay was occupied. Unless it was occupied by a twat, that would mean that the associated charging point was in use.
Annoyingly, a lot of places have 2 bays in front of each charger but even if that charger has 2 cables (fast and slow) only one car can be charged at a time

Why ask a mother & toddler to move?

Would you expect a single person to move? I wouldn't - don't see what the fact you have a child has to do with it.

FYI YABU she sounds deranged

*YANBU

You seem to be the OP's mouthpiece.
Were you there?

she was unreasonable. I'm with you it's exhausting just thinking about what you would have had to do to move your car. I'm what I assume is a busy car park. And if you weren't in a charging space then it makes no sense why she would want it. I hope your car was ok when you came back.

The whole exchange seems a bit odd tbh. She should have explained why she wanted that space as it wasn't clear to you. It's not up to you to guess! But you could have made more effort to communicate as well.

Why didn't you husband just stay with your son whilst you moved?

Nowt as queer as folk my love

How was this woman going to charge her car in an ordinary spot that wasn’t a car charging place?
I actually know quite a lot about various serial killers but still think some other people are evil

How do you possibly not know who that is, and not have google.

OP would you really take your toddlers coat off and strap him back in to go 10mp from one space to another?

@Yoyooo what husband?

Husband? Where was her husband?

I don't think either of you behaved well tbh and you didn't need to shout and swear.

Sorry I misread DS stood next to me as DH

She sounds ridiculous. People should start accepting the word “no” rather than always thinking they can push it.

Why have you even brought up Jeffery Dahlmer? That’s literally so bizarre.

I assume she asked you to love because she needed to charge her car. Since her car was already in a space she must have tried to charge it and it wasn’t working.

It just seems a bit petty to not move and the whole exchange sounds so dramatic and over the top from you both.

Im pretty nice and helpful and theres not a chance I'd have wrestled my child back into a car seat before the hell that is Ikea I'm afraid, YANBU

Just out of interest…can you parkin in an EV charging bay if you don’t have an EV. I’m not meaning out of spite but when there are no other bays. Though it does annoy me that the EV bays are always in the best spots

I'm going to guess that the woman asking OP to swap was parked in a standard 7kwh charging spot, but wanted to move to a rapid charger - which do charge cars significantly faster.

7kwh chargers require you to use your own cable and usually allow 2 cars to be charged off it at the same time.

50kwh chargers require heavy duty connectors and so you don't use your own cable. They often have 2 cables for different types of cars BUT crucially you can only charge 1 car off them at a time, so although it might look like you can charge 2 cars off it you can't, and so there will only be one parking space next to it. It might be that a car was in the sole charging spot using the other cable and OP was in a normal parking spot immediately next to it, and either there was a car plugged in actively charging, and the woman mistakenly thought she could use the charger at the same time OR there was a car plugged in which had finished charging and in that case she would have been able to charge off the same charger but presumably could not get close enough to do so.

No you cant
People regularly get tickets for doing this in our local Lidl