On Oct 11th; Paypal will begin to pocket all fees related to a refund:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/20/20876570/paypal-refund-fee-policy-change-sellers-controversy

This means that as a seller when I issue a refund; the fees Paypal originally collected will not be refunded to the customer. This means of the domestic USA market; 2.9%+.30 will be effectively stolen from the customer. IE if the customer paid $35 to me... the refund back to the customer will only be 33.98.

Personally; I find the whole thing borderline criminal... but there aren't any other options for a small company like mine.

I imagine Paypal's thinking is that the sellers will eat the 2.9%+.30cents on a relatively small number of transactions; but that isn't the case. At least once or twice a month; I have to refund duplicate orders because of Paypal API errors and people resubmit an order. Now this means that those orders won't get 100% of their money back. I also regularly refund overages due to shipping costs - especially overseas. Now I'll have to think twice; or at least remove the 2.9% fees from the refund. Just silly.

Yeah; I'm tired of PP's BS myself. Stripe doesn't look any better.
Unfortunately; I feel like I've got little choice but to raise prices and/or not offer refunds.
The only people who are being hurt is everyone in the paypal system.

EXCEPT that as of this date; Paypal has NO WAY to flag duplicate orders. It's a single "Issue Refund" link and that link doesn't allow you to select a reason. This means - at least as I know it now; I can't flag a duplicate order and get the transaction fees returned to the customer.

<< I do have situations where someone accidentally buys two items but only wanted one and other things like that which will generate a paypal refund transaction. To get dinged with fees when that happens because of customer accident would kind of suck. >>

That's my point. If this was a once a year problem; I'd be ok with it.
BUT this happens once a month. I'm probably going to have to look into preventing dup orders... something very draconian. Like preventing orders from entering the system at all for the same account until it's marked shipped or something.

The REAL problem I have is I know... KNOW there is going to be a duplicate order or a refund expectation and the customer is going to file a dispute over the couple of dollars for the fee. And I know... just know; that paypal is going to side on the buyer and TAKE the refunded fees out of MY account... even when I have a restocking fee. Because that's the way they roll.

As suggested by Art; our website now reflects a 5% restocking fee.
There is also a new checkbox in the ordering system that makes the customer acknowledge there is a restocking fee now.

Obviously; I'm going to be fair in this... it the problem is our system - I eat the restocking fee.
If the problem is user error; I'll likely expect the customer to pay the PP fees wither it's 2.9% or 4.x%(international).

Already implemented. In every case; the system and paypal see a new invoice number for duplicated orders - can't avoid that with the current system of checks and balances.

That's just it. With the current system - Paypal makes no effort to flag refunds for an reason. As the seller; I cannot flag a refund as a duplicate order... if they did or will... and then will refund the fees; then great - I'm happy. But as it stands now... with the system as I see it now; There is no way to avoid those fees on duplicate orders.

Welp… this just happened to a customer despite these checkboxes on my shopping cart:
PaypalError (resized).png

The APIs malfunctioned and the customer must have clicked thru the boxes without reading them.
He was refunded minus the Paypal Fees... and ofcourse; Paypal has done NOTHING to allow me to flag the order as a duplicate order so that it can be "exempt".

I honestly feel bad for the customer; as PayPal shouldn't be eligible to collect the fees on that transaction. Sadly; my hands are tied.

As a customer … I would be annoyed if there was a silent expectation or if/when it's buried in boilerplate on the website.
However, if it were very clear (like I did); I'd have to chalk it up to me not paying attention and just deal with it.