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!

No, if you don’t need to charge a car then don’t park in a charging point. It’s like parking at a petrol pump.

The charging points are just in the most logical positions, it makes no sense to run the electrics through the entire carpark to locate them at the back.

YABU for allowing child to charge around IKEA on a trike.

@pigonalipstick Genuinely have no idea. I don't watch tv & couldn't be bothered/interested enough to Google.

I don't understand why anyone is defending this woman! I'm with the OP. If someone said to you after you'd just parked your car "your parking space is more convenient for me than the one I have (that you can't park in), could you drive off and find another space somewhere so I can have your space?" you'd really think that was reasonable?!

I still want to know why a child on a trike in a car park is a good idea?

But she didn’t say that. Needing to charge your car is a need not a want. Would you be happy a car to just be parked all afternoon at a petrol pump?

Yanbu.

As for those commenting on the trike I assume it's a trike with a parent handle due to the op's child's age

What a rude cow she was. Good for you OP, I wouldn't have moved, kids or not. Not sure why EV owners get free fuel/priority spaces anyway, if they're wealthy enough to have one then surely they can pay for their charging. Pisses me off enormously when I drive to my local town and one of the three disabled parking spots in the town centre is now an EV space, same at local hospital, actually removing disabled spaces to cater for EV owners who presumably have the use of their legs.

What a rude cow she was. Good for you OP, I wouldn't have moved, kids or not. Not sure why EV owners get free fuel/priority spaces anyway, if they're wealthy enough to have one then surely they can pay for their charging. Pisses me off enormously when I drive to my local town and one of the three disabled parking spots in the town centre is now an EV space, same at local hospital, actually removing disabled spaces to cater for EV owners who presumably have the use of their legs.

Whilst I understand the inconvenience in losing a disabled space the rest of your post is ridiculous. Everyone will have an EV in the future and there are huge incentives in putting in the infrastructure asap to encourage people to move across and away from fuel. Also it's not free.

Removing spaces from disabled use etc is pretty shitty, but public charging is now very very rarely free. Usually it's more expensive to charge at a public charging point than at home.

And the spaces are provided obviously to encourage people to use particular shops, just like P&C spaces are.

OP said she wasn't parked in a charging spot. So why should she move? That's not the same as parking at a petrol pump at all.

If you need to charge your car and the charging spaces you need are full then it's tough, isn't it. It sounds like she had a charging space but wanted a different one for some reason.

I've not charged at IKEA but some places let you charge for free for a set period - say 30 mins to an hour and then it becomes chargeable.

Just a guess, but did she want to move her car to a fresh charger to avoid charges?

Either way, not your issue OP. If you weren't in an EV space the space was yours.

Also the trike thing in ikea is more unreasonable than anything the woman did tbh

I'm not sure the woman concerned should have been driving today, if a simple no thanks brings that reaction. Pity you did not have her car registration.

For those of you concerned about the trike, this is what I pushed my son around. It's like pushing a buggy. What is worrying about using this in IKEA?

I'd fear for my ankles.

Nothing wrong with the trike.

But you haven’t answered the question of why she wanted your space when you weren’t in an electric charging point?

Did you actually say to her that the bay you were in wasn't a charging bay? I assume she mistakenly thought it was.
Or alternatively you actually had parked in a charging bay and just didn't realise at first.

For those of you thinking I had parked in the EV bay, I hadn't. I was parked in the bay for non-EVs. The road markings were very clear.
Re: Dahmer reference - I had watched a programme on him last night and he was still fresh on my mind. So when she called me evil, I thought whaaaaaat!!! Evil for refusing to move?
Me swearing and shouting was wrong, I know that, but she really frustrated me with her persistence. I'm not averse to helping anyone but if I too have to be back for an appointment then I can't help you and you just have to accept my "no". The carpark was busy, I didn't have the time to drive off looking for another space.
And as for charging points, I'm totally ignorant to fast and slow charging. I know nothing about them.

She never said why she wanted my spot. She just asked if she could have it to charge her car and that she has an appointment. There was a man charging his van right next to me, she was in the EV bay right next to him. Her car was plugged in. From what others have said, maybe it's to do with the charging speed. I have no idea

She knew that my spot was for non-EVs. She saw it and still said she can park there too!

Haha!! That made me laugh. I know it wasn't supposed to but it did

Exactly this!

He doesn't charge around IKEA, he can't pedal yet. I push him around like a buggy