There goes the independent trader, squeezed to death by the greedy robber barons. The end result will be fiefs with no occupants other than the clans that own them. Then they can just charge themselves high taxes. That's a good zero sum game.
Yes this is my fear, I considered locking this post, but I left it open for discussions like this. But, can we put enough pressure on them (them not being DRZ alone) to make change.
An invite to one's house generally means you will not be unjustly charged upon entering, leaving, or your pocketbook will not be picked while there. In this case traders were welcomed with; FREE, FREE, FREE nothing has changed but one village and then it is only the tax. Deceitful??? Misleading??? or Just business???
This being a free market, I warned my friends and the strat world of the charges. This now, hopefully, pressures others who choose to charge such a high fee to reconsider their trade plans. If you don't want people in your fiefs crafting, state that or don't welcome them. I chose to go elsewhere because why should I trade and give my tax money to a trader that truly doesn't wish to welcome me. I am a cash cow and I choose where I get slaughtered (generally
.)
Remember, the trader's fees and taxes paid help the landowner wage war somewhere, so in the end the trader must support those that are trade friendly or risk losing his/her livelihood..Nebun was very polite, as always, and hinted in the post that he may have refunded my gold if I had responded that I wanted such. I immedialtly closed that line of communication, the refund does not concern me. The long term vitality/viability of independent trading does. A refund is selling out and it leaves all other traders vulnerable.
For those that really want to know, I lost $1400 gold, 16 troops, and had to sell some, now unused/unneeded, armor to empty that crate (for the speed advantage.) I had seriously upgraded, buying a lot of new supplies, shortly before sending my toon to the fief or it could have been worse.
In my travels I have found FCC to be the most friendly towards traders followed by mercs (but be careful Merc land is bandit heavy; both north and south) , many clans I have contacted and found them to be very friendly, I have yet to visit their lands to confirm thier fees as I have been very happy with FCC. This statement
does not include those with Ai owned claims so please don't get upset...just lands that are actively held.
I hold no grudges, it was clearly posted in screen if I had looked, I should have checked and didn't, granted I trusted and even though I never dreamed it would be something like 100 gold/hr it was still my responsibility. I'm not accusing DRZ of scamming or anything similar to that, I do accuse them of price gouging and I will boycott them as i will all who choose to destroy free trade.
Let this thread become an attack on high fees and not DRZ alone!!! If I wanted this to simply be a he lied to me, wahwahwah!!!!!!, post I would have taken the refund and ran. These type of gouging practices have to stop.
5-10 gold visiting fee is reasonable, 1 gold is very reasonable
100 gold...well........................
