calling a french number while in france

[Hebbers2226]

hi, had a situation at the weekend of trying to call car hire roadside assistance number 0033 0800xxxxxx from UK mobile but the call would not connect. Could ring UK numbers & other french numbers, therefore not signal problem. Was told by a french person that these 0800 numbers are not free like in the UK, Question is are these type of numbers blocked from use.

[Schockwave]

Hello @Hebbers2226 , /

Welcome to the community,

You should have either rang+33800xxxxx or 0033800xxxxx. To your other question, have no idea whether they are blocked, but when abroad, you need to put the international dialling code for all countries, including the UK, if you ring a UK number while abroad by omitting the 0 at the beginning of the number, so UK would be +44 or 0044 and then the number such as 800xxx instead of 0800xxx, hope this helps to clarify.

[Hebbers2226]

tried various combinations of 00330800xxx or 0033800xxx, as it was a french road assist number to ring.

[Schockwave]

@Hebbers2226 , was there not another number there, as it is quite possible that you cannot ring an international free number from the country you are roaming in?

[Hebbers2226]

unfortunately we were not provided with an alternaitve number by the hire company.

Lesson learnt for next time, try number before leaving the hire company desk to make sure it works......