www.mister-auto.co.uk is the UK customer oriented website of French motor parts distributor Mister-Autos SAS based in Lyon in France under company number 508 332 244 and with a French registered office at 17 rue Jean ROSTAND, 69740 GENAS, France.

However in the UK their trading address is at 4th Floor Lincoln House 300 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7JH as listed at http://m.mister-auto.co.uk/en/gts.html   A search on 192.com for WC1V 7JH comes up with Auris Magnetic on 020 7092 6681 at 4Th Floor Lincoln House, 300 High Holborn, High Holborn, Holburn, London, WC1V 7JH as the only non barrister operation at that postcode.  I duly called their 020 number and was answered by a lady with an extremely French sounding accent who initially denied a connection Mister Auto but who, when I then told of her my problem with a motor part item being delivered two days too early (so I was not at home when delivery was attempted by FedEx), said the whole of that part of the operation was back in France and I would have to use the 0844 number to contact it.  So clearly Auris Magnetic is a connected business of the same group but they will not give me a geographic number to replace the 0844 number

This firm offers motor parts at very reasonable prices (the part was actually sent last night from a depot in Leeds by FedEx after my order on their website around 4pm) with very swift delivery but unfortunately they give pessimistic estimates of delivery that means one can choose the wrong address to deliver to if one is not at home all the time at that address.

I think I have used all the standard detective work that is normally possible but I suspect the call centre served by the UK 0844 number is actually in France and that the only possible Geo Alternative may be a French one.  On that basis at www.mister-auto.com I have come up with the French number 04 26 70 02 96  However if I call this with 18185 not omitting the initial 0 before the 4 I get told that 18185 does not offer calls to this destination yet but if I omit the Initial 4 there is some brief French network message and the call is disconnected.  So basically the number is not callable from the UK with a cheap call carrier. :( :'(

If anyone else has any further suggestions on a UK Geo alternatve to 0844 338 0021 then I would be very interested if they provide it here.

Hmmm on looking at this further on Wikipedia at http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_de_num%C3%A9rotation_t%C3%A9l%C3%A9phonique_en_France I see that French 04 numbers should actually be normal Geographic numbers in the South East quadrant of France and that Non Geo numbers only begin 08 and 09 while 06 and 07 numbers are mobiles.  So on that basis it seems peculiar that I cannot call  04 26 70 02 96 with www.18185.co.uk at 1p per minute plus 4p connection fee.

It seems very odd how their entire operation works..

I have looked over the site and can only assume they have their operations centre in France.

There is an e-mail address listed here: http://www.mister-auto.co.uk/en/gts.html under section 5.5 which maybe of use?

I wish I could suggest something else

:(