Is this a possible ebay scam?

se2020

Sent a buyer an item via evri.
Had a message moaning it had not arrived and they needed it in a hurry. Apparently been home all day every day and no sign of evri.
Fair enough I thought, I know how bad evri can be.

Looked up evri tracking and item was "held-unable to deliver" 3 Delivery attempts made.
Sent replacement on (different) 24hr carrier.
Opened the tracking details on the evri site and put "return to sender" on the delivery notes.

Checked tracking today and the evri item was delivered 15mins after my 24hr carrier delivered the replacement.

Noticed when checking the 24hr carriers tracking that I had previously sent 4 different packages to this address. 

Went through my ebay history and, sure enough, each one of those was a replacement for an evri delivery that had "gone missing" only to arrive within an hour or so of the replacement arriving.
Each to the same address but all different ebay user names. 

The only thing I can think of is that the buyer is actually the local evri delivery agent, or his mate is?
And they just hold the parcel until the replacement arrives then "deliver" it, presumably to get paid the delivery fee as well.

I know evri are bad but they can't be consecutively that bad 5 times to one address can they?

What do I do?
Apart from making a note to that address and not posting anything to them?
Can I block a buyer by address on ebay?
It's been a different user name each time so blocking that won't help..

JetpackVelociraptor

You can't block a buyer by address, but there are some other things you can do. Report it to action fraud. Send an email with the crime reference number to evri as a complaint, explaining that this is a recurring problem that has cost you money and appears to be involving their staff. Phone eBay customer services, explain that you're being targetted by a serial scammer with multiple eBay accounts at the same address, and give them the crime reference number and all of the account names that you know of along with all the other details you have. Send a letter before action to the address informing them that you will be suing them for the full value of all of the "missing" parcels plus your time and other associated costs unless they return the items to you or pay for them, and that you won't take any further orders from them. And it goes without saying, should you receive any further orders from anyone at that address, immediately cancel the order and report it to eBay. You can set up a filter on your emails to add a label or tag to emails including that address so you won't have to remember what the address is.

I have no idea if evri will do anything, eBay are capable of banning all accounts with a certain physical address but whether they will do that is a mystery, and it's unlikely action fraud will actually take any action, but the letter may result in some kind of response. Many eBayers behave as if eBay itself is the sellers' only recourse when things go wrong - but what you're describing is a crime, so you absolutely can and should take action outside of eBay. If the letter doesn't produce the desired response it's up to you to decide whether it's worthwhile taking it further. Small claims court may be an option depending on the value of the goods and how much you want to make an example of this person.

People who get scammed often find themselves being targetted by other scammers as they share information about their targets, so keep a close eye on any other "item not received" claims or other suspicious activity you get in the next six months.

GadgetGuru

I’ve had something similar to this before. 

Buyer continually either refuses or just doesn’t take delivery. The item sits at the sorting office awaiting further instruction. Emails sent to the buyer are just ignored with no response. 
The item is then eventually returned to the sender as undelivered.

Buyer states they had no card and no idea the package was waiting - apparently their email was blocked and hence was unable to retrieve any messages - all very coincidental.
Please can it be sent back - my buyer was even happy to pay delivery a second time. 

The item is dispatched a second time. The buyer was hoping I would send via the cheapest method as as soon as I dispatched he raised an INR claim on eBay - fortunately I had tracking information, which I promptly supplied to eBay and case was closed. 

Buyer received the item and this time took delivery. Within an hour of taking delivery, he had contacted eBay and a case was raised for SNAD. It was a brand new sealed action camera, which he stated was a little blurry - so had now opened etc.

I had to pay more postage for the item to be returned. I contacted eBay as it was now outside of the 30 day returns period, so I questioned why a case was raised under these circumstances. They agreed and proceeded to clos ethe case, which they said would close in my favour. 

The idiot rep accidentally closed in the buyers favour and issued a refund. The buyer now had the item AND a refund!!

Contacted eBay who admit their mistake and refunded me the full amount to ‘make me whole’ again. 

So from my point of view, I had my payment - it just didn’t sit right with me that this buyer now had the item as well as his money, after trying whatever scam he wanted to play (unsuccessfully).

Contacted the buyer - asked for the camera back now that he had his refund otherwise I would be filing a claim via small claims court. He promptly returned the camera!

All kinds of scams at the moment - just always keep yourself covered with tracking info etc. If an item is returned to your as undelivered, its best to just take the hi ton the postage, refund the buyer and not resend!