A BEMUSED customer told how he tried in vain to call a mobile phone shop - only to be told they did not have a phone.

Baffled Martin Hathaway was trying desperately to ring the Vodafone store in Coney Street, York, after he accidentally left his new charger on the counter.

But four phone calls later, Martin discovered the shop does not have its own number - and staff can only be contacted by email.

Mystified Martin, 55, said: "It seems mad to me. How can a telephone company not have a number so you can ring their own shop?

"People could be calling to check anything, such opening hours or if a certain product is in. But you just get put through to a call centre."

Martin, who originates from York, but now lives in Durham, was in the city to meet friend Lynn McKivvin, and went to the store to buy a new phone charger.

"They kindly let us leave the phone on charge while we were in town," he said. "But when we returned to pick it up, I left the charger in the shop by mistake."

The pair returned to their guest house and telephoned the shop, on a York number which was listed in the phone book.

"But when I got through, I just got an answer phone which said the number no longer existed and gave another 0845 number to ring," said Martin, a semi-retired computer aided designer.

He tried the second number and spoke to a call centre worker who agreed to find the store number, but then the line went dead.

"I rang up again and spoke to another person at the call centre," he said. "But that person then had to ring another number and ask someone there to email the shop.

"Eventually it was sorted out and I got a phone call to say my charger was still there - but the whole process took about an hour.

"It would have been quicker getting on my bike and riding across town to find out."

But Vodafone offered a simple explanation and said it was now the policy not to have a landline number in any of its stores.

A spokeswoman said: "We decided to implement one number for all stores to try to make life easier for customers.

"Historically, our estate of stores was often changing and expanding....as a result the telephone number for a store would have become out of date in the phone book.

"Secondly, most customers want information about handsets and tariffs, so by having one number it means our retail staff can concentrate on helping customers in-store and not spend their time on the phone, while phone enquiries can be dealt with by our contact centres."

Updated: 08:21 Monday, May 29, 2006