Wells Fargo HELOC refi

3 months before my current HELOC expired, I called Wells Fargo and asked about refinancing my HELOC. I had paid down 1/3 of it the last 10 years but wanted to refi what's left. No problem. They told me call back closer to expiration date.
So I called 3 weeks out. In their defense they told me I should have called 1 month out. So during the process I kept asking (as recently as last weekend) if I should worry about collections if the previous deadline arrived and they said not to worry, the collections people keep track of the refi's and won't bother you.
You can guess the rest. Today I got a call from collections. In 4 days I could be hit with a 5% penalty. They said they would waive it but when I asked to get that in writing they declined. They would only verbally tell me I wouldn't be hit with it. So today I called my original 2 contacts to discuss but haven't been able to get in touch with either one of them.
The frustrating thing is the collections people said that what the underwriter told me was wrong. Collections has no connection/knowledge to the refi information so as far as they are concerned they just start collections on time without regard to refi (even through the same company).
Last weekend Brandon called me and told me everything was approved except for title and appraisal and again I did ask about the collections and he assured me all is well.
So now I'm scrambling to get money ready to pay it off from a company account and repay from the HELOC when it comes through. Although when I suggested this to Wells Fargo, they said they may not approve the refi if it's paid off.
So what do I do now? Risk the penalty or risk owing my company the amount I'm borrowing to cover it?