Today I get notice on the dash a bulb has failed, near side brake light. Okay me thinks, I grab the bulb kit and ready to replace, no go. The bulbs have off set pins, I did not know this (plonker me) :-). So do I have to buy replacement bulbs from Skoda or any car spares discount shop. I do not know.

Halfords have a chart showing what bulbs go where although I've noticed a few mistakes with it.

Best bet is taking the bulb into a car parts wholesaler as you mentioned

ISTR that Skoda use a 21w/4w bulb where most common bulbs are 21w/5w. Putting the wrong one in can cause error messages.

Yes I had a brake light bulb go recently, went to Halfords and fell into the trap of using their bulb chart and ended up with wrong bulb as pins not offset as you say. So popped to local Skoda garage (Savilles Garage Kidderminster) who replaced bulb for me at no charge.

Halfords have a chart showing what bulbs go where although I've noticed a few mistakes with it.

Best bet is taking the bulb into a car parts wholesaler as you mentioned

definetly, the octy mk2 hid bulb for one is wrong

The different pin configuration is to stop you using the 21/5W.

As mentioned above you need the 21/4W.

I'm assuming its a hatch? The estate uses a single filament bulb and alters the output for the tail/brake functions.