Active-duty military trying to remove paid collection!

I recieved orders to PCS (aka move) to an overseas duty station and had to find a renter for my house. After the original tenant left, they failed to pay the remaining $127 electricity bill which was mailed to the address. I didn't see the bill until I returned from overseas at which point it had already been turned over to a collection agency. I paid it off right away in 2010, but I'm trying to refinance my mortgage now, and it's negatively impacting my credit.

I called the CA directly and requested that they removed it, but they stated that they could not, as it was accurate information. They also stated that they make no exceptions for military personnel. Is there anything I can do at this point? Send them a GW letter?

I also have a single 30 day late for my Chase Credit Card, which happened when I had signed up for auto-pay (or at least thought I had), but the payment did not go through for some reason. Being deployed, I wasn't able to check my account regularly until it was too late and saw that the payment of $24 had not gone through. I called Chase to request they remove it, but they denied me. I was disappointed as I have two credit cards with them in good standing. Any options here as well?

Please let me know as I'm a complete newbie at handling these issues, and these are the only two negative issues currently bringing down my credit score to a 701.

Thank you!