Misused return - can you make a deduction without getting negative feedback?

[sea.n.van._60]

If a buyer misuses the returns process to return a working item and I refund their money minus the cost of return postage, will they be able to leave negative feedback in retaliation? If so, what is the point in being able to make such deductions in the first place? If I open the return and test it on camera, will that be useful? In the past I've just refunded the whole payment to avoid the problem but I'm getting a little sick of dishonest customers.

[plpmr]

You have to refund all the buyer paid and in any case private sellers cannot make deductions. 

[game_raid]

You are not allowed to make a partial refund to account for the postage, this is seen as seller abuse. The correct method is to report the buyer for making a false claim, eBay look at the case on whether to issue the seller with an account credit to cover the return shipping.

There actually needs to be something wrong with the item such as been opened, used, damaged or a different item or empty box has been returned.

The new seller protections will remove any feedback related to a partial refund on a return but you need to be a business seller who is top rated or a private seller that has offered free returns.

Returns issues

We remove neutral/negative feedback when any of the following occurred and this is what the buyer is referencing:

• The item was returned used or damaged and the seller deducted an amount from the refund

The policy is below.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/feedback-policies/feedback-policy?id=4208#section3

[nutrafituk]

Buyers can abuse the return policy as much as they like - ebay rarely doesn't anything about it. As a seller you are supposed to refund the whole payment as already advised unless there is a physical issue with the returned item. Most of times, as a seller, you will find the whole process unfair and out of pocket.