Just Got Ranted At

[Soviet]

Okay, that title may be a bit harsh. I charge at a private workplace that is apparently managed by a property management company. I stopped in early this morning to charge and left the car before heading to the office. I had to head over to another office right next to where I parked the car & noticed an orange paper on the windshield. Ignored it because I had work to do & before I got on the elevator, saw a beefy security guy coming out. My Spidey sense tingled and I followed him out. He went straight for the charger and took it out of the car, then the plug. (Aside from touching someone else's property, was there a breach in the law here? I was absolutely incensed that some fat bastard put his hands on my property but I kept my cool. After all, it was a case of MY private property on THEIR private property and utilizing THEIR property's 120V outlet)

Anyways, I asked what was going on while picking up the orange paper. He said "Come with me" & led me to the property manager's office on the 3rd floor. Waiting there were 2 men & 2 women who worked with the firm & basically told me that it was a fire hazard, yadda, yadda, yadda. (It ain't a fire hazard when you charge your phone, is it, now, goofball?) I let them know another individual with an office at the property also had an electric car & we've both been waiting for months for information on dedicated electric vehicle chargers and one of the gentlemen told me that he was aware of it & that in fact, he had just found out yesterday about the other individual charging his car. Which was probably why they were having such an intense "intervention" with me at the time. (I was very lucky to have had the chance to even confront them; good timing! It looked as if they were merely going to steal my charger away. Could I have called the cops?)

Anyways, all were concerned in a positive manner and the women especially were accomodating but the men were jerks, plain and simple. When I asked about a timetable for dedicated 120V or 240V (we'd be perfectly fine with 120V) chargers, 1 guy said "I'm not at liberty to say when." Which made it sound as though they haven't DONE A SINGLE THING! Had done NOTHING in the past 12 months! Are you kidding me?! LOL. He also mentioned a "cost issue" as if we were using a gasoline tank's worth of electricity for free. Ha!

Anyways, that jerk left the room & left me with the women and the other gentleman and we engaged in light banter with myself explaining a few tidbits about the car and them asking about the car and it ended rather amicably. The beginning was full of tension, I could feel them wondering if I was going to be crazy or something. I can't be crazy, I'm not a customer or a visitor, I work here. LOL.

The meeting ended and I took my charger back from the fat bastard (don't EVER touch my property without express permission) and left, moving the car. Then I went on with my day.

What do you guys think? Did I handle it all right?

 

[dgpcolorado]

Did you have permission to use the 120 V outlets? If so, from whom?

If not, then they are within their rights to refuse you permission, whether or not their reasons are rational or reasonable.

If so, whether from your employer or a representative of the property management company, then they were out of line in unplugging you. If they want to change charging policy they should talk to you first and give you a chance to plead your case. IMO, of course.

 

[smkettner]

I think you should have confirmed with the building owner or management before you plugged in.

 

[TimLee]

What do you guys think? Did I handle it all right?

All depends on whether you knew it was a single outlet on a single breaker and whether you had appropriate approvals and authorizations to use it. If you had not done all of this then you were completely in the wrong.
(But they should have only unplugged it from the outlet, not the vehicle.)

Without those, no one should just be using any old 120V outlet they find in a parking lot.
Could be a fire hazard.

Without doing that how safe 120V charging is depends on how lucky you are.
Very few garages have the correct properly installed high quality single outlet supplied by a single breaker.
Code only allows using 80% of the circuit rating for a long term continuous load.
So on a 15 amp circuit nothing else should be on the same circuit while the car is charging.
And a lot of 120V gets put in poorly using push in connections.
One person had a bad fire most likely from staples that had damaged the cable in the wall.
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=15784&hilit=+fire#p352567" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Only properly installed 120V outlets that have been properly checked by a qualified person should ever be used for charging.

 

[Soviet]

OP here. Thanks for the replies! I forgot to mention (I guess I believed it would be automatically assumed) that I had already discussed it with the building manager (or whatever his position was) months ago, if not years ago. This is a relatively newer building on a booming part of town and we had been charging every once in a while (not daily, only when we have to make a stop on the way home that's out of range) for years before some security guy said to ask the building manager back in 2013. The building manager checked it out & put a sticker on the charger that said we had permission to charge from the building.

I mentioned to these goofballs today that I had been cleared by that gentleman & their faces evinced that they had never heard anything about it. So now I'm concerned about having gotten that gentleman in trouble, but how do these guys not know about people with electric cars? We're not the only ones with electric cars here. And the argument about the charge load being too high doesn't make too much sense when they use the same outlets to charge security golf carts.

And the way that guy said "I'm not at liberty to say" was just plain strange. If he doesn't know, say "I don't know", but he made it sound as though they haven't even done anything at all. Weird.

 

[Nubo]

...fat bastard...
...goofball...
...jerks......
jerk left the room...
... fat bastard (don't EVER touch my property without express permission)...

What do you guys think? Did I handle it all right?

I think you've got an attitude problem.

 

[smkettner]

What happened to the sticker?

 

[Elephanthead]

Very simple, tell whomever you visit in that office building that you will no longer do business with them and they should ask the property manager why.

 

[EVDRIVER]

...fat bastard...
...goofball...
...jerks......
jerk left the room...
... fat bastard (don't EVER touch my property without express permission)...

What do you guys think? Did I handle it all right?

I think you've got an attitude problem.

I agree, it is private property period and they do have the right to tell you not to charge at any time for any reason and they have no obligation to explain otherwise. Unless your employment contract explicitly says you have some special rights to charging. Even if you were told before you could charger and they now say no, tough luck it's their decision. I'm would guess they have every right to touch your property parked on theirs and connected to their building.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Very simple, tell whomever you visit in that office building that you will no longer do business with them and they should ask the property manager why.

Really? Wow. I thought E in EV was for electric not entitled. This is exactly what gives EV drivers a bad name in public.

 

[kubel]

It's private property.

I had a similar thing happen at work, except I got permission from executive management to plug into an outlet that was just inside one of our warehouse bays. Because I got permission from the top, no one below the executive level could tell me I couldn't plug in- but they could make it as difficult as possible.

1) Just before I was to pick up my LEAF, one of the supervisors (who was in charge of OSHA compliance) removed my cord and told me I couldn't use the plug because it posed a occupational hazard. They gave valid reasons, so I proposed a solution: Install an outdoor GFCI receptacle with a weatherproof in-use cover at the same location. Minimal cost (punch a hole in the wall and tie in to the outlet inside), maximum safety (no longer a hazard of running an cable from inside to outside, plus GFCI protected)- it addresses both of our concerns. Executive leadership approved the plan and rolled it into another electrical capital expense project.

2) Someone in lower-level management ordered the placement of two storage trailers to flank both sides of the outlet. It seemed almost intentional, but since I already had executive approval, it didn't stop me from plugging in. It just became more difficult since I had to crawl under the trailer to plug in and unplug. Eventually I just padlocked the EVSE in place and kept it there permanently and ran the EVSE cable under the trailer.

3) They decided to move the dumpster closer to the plug, so each time the dump truck came to swap out the dumpster, I got a call from the warehouse asking me to drop what I was doing and move my car. Eventually, they moved one of the trailers up a few feet so they could open/close the trailer doors to get access to equipment stored inside. It was just wide enough for my LEAF to slip back there. So the dumpster excuse was no longer a problem.

4) But getting access to the trailer was. Every few weeks, I would get a call. "Your car is blocking access to the trailer, and we need to get into it". Good Lord...

5) Workers asked that I remove the padlock from my EVSE. They said it was blocking the installation of some insulation around the bays. I wasn't sure why they made this request, but I removed it. A few days later, they never installed the insulation, so I padlocked it back on.

6) Then they plowed the lot and literally buried my LEAF up to the windows. It got out under its own power eventually (after I spent my lunch unburying it). It was the opposite of standard operating procedure to build snow up against the loading bays, so this was the last straw. I elevated the issue to HR, and they had to send out a cat to unbury my spot.

Again, was it intentional? It almost seemed like it. But you know what- even if it was, this is the game you play when it's not your property. We are entitled to NOTHING if it isn't the fruit of of own labor (aka, our property).

I suggest you find out who ordered the removal of your EVSE. Don't go demanding- just do a quiet investigation. Was it a low-level employee? Was it merely the imitation bacon (rent-a-cop)?

Seek approval at a high level, preferably someone who knows you have an EV, preferably someone in executive leadership.

Finally, address their concerns. They mentioned it could pose a hazard and it could be an expense. Offer to pay for the electricity, and suggest ways that they can improve their outlets for maximum safety (upgrade to GFCI).

If you seek approval from a high level AND address all of their concerns, you might have a better chance of plugging in than you would by just taking without asking.