Europcar won't refund my deposit and Paypal won't help!

[Donegal]

I travel over from Ireland a lot and use my Paypal Access Card to leave a deposit (£250) with Europcar when I rent a car from them. This deposit was taken from my Paypal balance over two weeks ago and despite many emails I can not get them to refund it.

I filed a claim in the Resolution Centre only to have it closed almost immediately (almost unheard of) and told the following:

"Unfortunately, we were unable to investigate your dispute because the
transaction was made with your PayPal Access Prepaid MasterCard®. In order
to dispute PayPal Access Card transactions please contact Card Customer
Service in the following way"

Now the question I have is this: Paypal  offered me this card which is financed purely from my balance so why do I have to contact Access/Mastercard to try to get a problem sorted out. I didn't use any money from Access/Mastercard, so why do I have to talk to them. The money has been taken from my Paypal account balance not Access/Mastercard., so why will Paypal not do anything about it.

It basically comes down to this, I paid for a service as well as leaving a deposit for that service, the service has been concluded and the seller refuses to return my deposit, it's SIMPLE!!!

If this was an ordinary seller, Paypal would have immediately seized the funds from their account pending investigation but of course, this is a big business not an ordinary seller and I think Paypal are not going to waste their time taking on another giant business, it's far easier and cheaper just to shaft their own customer.

[kernowlass]

You would not have won the claim even if you had not used that card as paypal does not provide any buyer protection for "services". Buyer protection is only for physical items sent in the post.

[Donegal]

That's BS and they know it,  does it matter what the "item" is they still take the money from my account, that sort of cop-out is the same sort of beaucratic buck passing that I have had to listen to.

[kernowlass]

I can only tell you the FACTS and the FACT is that paypal buyer protection does not cover you for services and deposits etc, they can only cover you for items that are sent in the post ie tangible / physical items.

If you "choose" to go ahead with a transaction without buyer protection that is absolutely fine but if you come a cropper then paypal won't bail you out.