When is it whining?

OK. You are NOT whining. But you have to take charge of the situation. Go to the shop and demand to get your and your transmission back. Threaten them with small claims court if you have to. They should back off on that. From what you have said, they know they will lose. Then contact Brewer's. They are awesome. You will NEVER hear anybody complain about them. I have worked with them.

It's an outright buy of one of their rebuilds, a no core deal. They don't have my transmission. There is no 'take charge' to it. I don't want to hear from them what I heard from the local shop, 'Here's your deposit, thank you for not doing business with us.'

My car has been sitting since I put down my deposit. I don't want to take a chance on additional damage with what's going on with the trans IN the car now. I planned to send IT in for a rebuild just so I would have a spare.

...well, a second spare. ;)

I use the past tense 'planned' because I'm not so sure now. I figured that re-using the shipping box I get from them with trans #1 to send in my 833 for repair would work well. It's a quandary to me. I trust this outfit. They have not done any rebuilds/fixes for me in the past, but I have purchased parts/pieces.