Following this post ! I spoke to them this morning to ask about removing an account if I paid in full. They just gave me the run around and told me they would only report as paid in full ( which I was told won't make a difference in my credit report or score a collections is a collections only helps if removed, please correct me if I'm wrong) so I didn't pay it. They also lied and told me they had spoken to my neighbors who answered my phone regarding my account which made me laugh in their face, that may be the reason they refused to remove it from my report. lol Let me know if you get anywhere !
Dang. I haven't had any interaction with them directly as of yet. I've heard their demeanor can run the gamut though so I'm super excited for my first attempt at a GW to be completely ignored. 
As for the account being reported as PIF I can't see how that wouldn't help, but I'm not experienced enough to say one way or the other with any authority. I would suspect a lender would rather see a $0 balance and I recall reading somewhere that one of the newer Fico scoring models is being more lenient on paid collections.. but again, someone else will have to chime in.