Years ago that used to be a common ebay scam. Take the money and ship you an empty box. They had delivery confirmation and you're left holding the [empty] bag. Well, I was able to recover because the shipping weight was lower than the weight of the item I ordered, so it was obvious.
I'm sure scopes are handled in pallets or some container with many scopes in it, and it would be easy for an empty box to make it to a dealer, but beyond that, you would think someone would have noticed it was empty.
I hate to say it, but to me, it's the last person to handle it that gets the grief. If OP or Amazon sold it, it's up to them to figure it out, and if they aren't willing, then my CC company is more than willing.
Thank goodness you got the proper response from OP. Gives one confidence in them.