my fear is that RMA will find some way to put the original Sears back on my report to reflect their 8/96 date.
ahhh, I see. Hard to predict-- I worry about that myself. I would guess so long as you are willing to pull out the lawsuit card against RMA, Sears and EQ if that happens, then just do it.
Ill send rma a validation or something and see what happens. they know they are not gonna collect any $ from this cracker.