I’ve been having this issue on and off across multiple characters- I’ll go talk to the armor repair NPC, with plenty of money- and they will tell me I can’t afford the repairs. But, the repairs will get done anyhow, my money is taken, and in my hero screen everything looks fine.
However, the damaged shield will still show on my main screen, and if I talk to any armor repair person after that, they’ll want to charge the full amount.