Mark, I'll bet the Italians are waiting for Beta Marine to say something and Beta Marine is waiting for the Italians to say something.
Classic stall, pray that the pesky American goes away. Stay in there. First person to say something in this type of business poker usually pays.
Good luck my friend.
Seems like a believable take on the situation. And yet.... this is a cascading thread of responsibility and liability.
1- Tranmission is constructed in Italy.
2-Shipped to and assembled at the Beta factory in the UK, where it gets mated to a Kubota short block. (Shotgun marriage?)
3-Stocked and inspected again after arrival at the US distributor
4- Stocked by a regional distributor in the US
5- Shipped to the dealer in a destination city or area
6-picked up by retail purchaser
7-un-crated and installed by purchaser or his mechanic
My guesses might have a step too many or too few... but last year I was at steps 6 and 7, and my dealer gently fork-lifted the pallet with the complete engine and trans. into the bed of my truck. From there I drove it to my installer's shop for final measurement and then I drove it to our marina where we used a portable engine crane to transfer it to a sturdy cart. When beside our boat we finally loosened the bolts on the mounts and used our boom and halyard to lift it aboard our boat and lower it carefully into the cabin and onto the bed logs.
Since no one (AFAIK) has implied that the OP mishandled the engine package, then either.... someone somehow whacked the transmission part while in transit... or... it was missed by a QC person when constructed at the factory.
I am surprised by how far this whole situation has deteriorated.
By comparison, a friend of mine did an install of a new Betamarine powertrain like mine a couple of years ago, and reverse gear failed as he tried to back the just-launched boat out of the slings. (Yikes)
Immediately, as in "one phone call" by his mechanic, a new transmission was approved by the US distributor and cross-shipped here, and I used a club work boat to tow him over to his slip. The new trans was installed at the slip in a few days and all labor was reimbursed by Betamarine.
That rapid response to a warranty situation was just one more reason that we chose to install a new Beta last year.
So, please do keep us all "in the loop" on this.
Best of Luck to you!