Just an update for anyone on this thread that still cares.
PIF Sears a few weeks ago, finally. I called in to the number on the credit report and was told that I had declared bankruptcy and I could not pay off the account because of it. WTF? This was news to me since I had never declared BK. I was told to call in three days later as their BK specialist would look at the account and make the proper adjustments. I called 3 days later and found out that in that short span of time, my account was assigned to GC Services, some type of internal collection agency. WTF again?! Thanks for telling me Citibank. Anyway, I paid in full to GC and called Sears and they assured me that they pulled the account back from GC...Nothing on my CR yet, not even a balance update, at least for September anyways. I'll wait a few more weeks before disputing and will update here once again. Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this post.
Starting Score (January 2013): 537