WTF is the point in them? It’s almost like the developers want the game to be is built around corruption and scams, because thats the fastest way to make good money. In all honesty its seems like the only way to make any money.
My point is, the risk is absolutely massive when taking on a contract. Yet the game is programmed so that not only can u get blown into pieces and lose your investment, you can be completely sold out by the person who wrote the contract, with no hope of reversing the contract.
THERE IS NO INCENTIVE TO TAKE THEM ON.
THERE IS NO DEFENSE FOR A COURIER.
There is nothing for a courier, u either complete it or die.
This game does very little else than teach criminals and terrorists, with no help for the constructive.
The very least EVE could do is program it so once a contract is taken on you cannot be shut out of your destination.
Courier contracts have been a valuable service included in the game since before I started in late 2009. They serve a very useful purpose to the point that 2 large corps (Red Frog and the nul/low group Black Frog) made a living running such contracts.
Simple solution based on your issue… Do not accept courier contracts that request delivery to player owned structures or stations. As long as it is an NPC station, you cannot be locked out.
I don’t know, as an occasional user of courier contracts to move my stuff around for constructive purposes (trading and industry) I know I wouldn’t entrust my stuff to you if you didn’t take all the risk. That is kinda the point of me parting with my hard earned ISK and giving it to you. I’m certainly not going to take any risk my courier will scam me and run off with my stuff.
If you don’t want to, or can’t handle, managing the small amount of risk involved in moving things around modern highsec for other players, perhaps just stick to NPC courier missions. There are plenty of others willing to take on the risk and responsibility of moving my stuff in exchange for my ISK.
I’ve put out courier contracts and had them filled. I’ve also taken courier contracts and delivered them successfully.
You can check the issuer’s history of contracts to detect a scammer.
You can use common sense for whether the collateral is too high compared to the payment.
You can check the route on the map to see if it passes through danger areas or gatecamps.
You can see the destination and check whether you have docking rights. Or whether they can revoke your docking rights.
You can ignore the contracts that don’t give you at least a week to do the delivery, thereby randomizing / minimizing the chance of an ambush.
AND, CCP has removed the feature where other people can see when you log on (by just adding you as a contact). So, in fact, the feature is quite safe.
And it’s VERY useful. There’s a lot of stuff being moved via courier.
if you are not doing these things, you are obviously going to get scammed and deserve to be.
i make my living in this game as an industrialist to fuel my PVP and would sometimes be lost without courier’s as RL stops me from making the haul occasionally.
I wonder if the OP is aware that the real world transportation of goods works in a similar way, if a haulier fails to deliver on time they pay a penalty, if the load is lost due to theft, negligence, accident or being perishable etc they/ their insurers cover the value of the load.
TL;DR if you’re not prepared to lose your collateral, don’t take the contract.
As others have said, if you’re getting scammed doing courier contracts, then you’re not doing them right. Which is the same rule of thumb for pretty much everything in the game. Every scam has a tell - you just have to learn to spot them. Some good suggestions made here. There are plenty more if you do a search.
I know, right? It’s hard to believe that in this day and age, when people not wanting to be involved in non consensual pvp are given so many opportunities to avoid it (compared to pre-crimewatch and way back) that this is still allowed.
It almost makes me want to tear down my Rainbow Brite wallpaper and paint the walls with the blood of a thousand Pikachus.
insert mournful sigh
I demand justice… and a giant unicorn with 560,000,000 ehp to fly around with me, gently ushering me through gates whilst I autopilot to zero and to defend me with it’s majestic mane of freedom wafting in the solar winds.
Many corporations make ISK from courier services as their main source of income, Red frog comes to mind, just know this, there are a lot of rotten folks out there, you need to find contacts and work for them, I do agree that this “can’t dock” because the owners of the facility are part of the scam needs to go away, that has done nothing but put people off from running courier services, like me.
I’ve probably paid dozens of billions of isk as contract rewards for contracts completed by groups like red/black frog and pushx in return they’ve moved hundreds of billions worth of assets for me so I can only assume the OP hasn’t got a clue how courier contracts work.
Courier contracts serve very important logistics functions for everyone living some ways away from trade hubs. Usually they are corp or alliance contracts and charge a low fee to help recover fuel costs and/or reimburst some of the pilots time.
I have often helped out with scouting and cynos for my corp / alliance mates, thus donating my time, which in turn got me a free delivery of my stuff to wherever I needed it to get to.
Contracts are also a great way to organize individual players property among multiple other players. Can you imagine what it’d be like carrying some hulls and modules for 20 - 50 players in a freighter without contracts ? Not having an idea what belongs to whom or the time it would take to sort all that crap out after delivery ?
So they serve extremely important functions.
So that is their function. As far as public courrier contracts go, you are unfortunately correct. Don’t do them. Vast majority of them are unfortunately scams of one sort or another…
Typical Pedro response… Don’t look at the issue put forth by the OP, just pick one small part of the post and respond to it - in a very negative unhelpful way…
For the OP, NEVER accept a contract (of any sort) from or to a structure you aren’t sure you have access to.
Sadly it works something like - Create courier contract with 1 medium shield extender going from point A to B, (B being a private structure). Set reward at 20 mil (or whatever) collateral 2 bil, then just wait till the person who accepted the courier contract can’t deliver it and you get 2 bil… NB; This isn’t a scam, it is up to the person accepting the contract to make sure they can deliver it…
PS; OP I have owned and operated a JF for many years and trust me you can make isk with them. You just need to learn the ropes and take care…
Disca, I’m a veteran space trucker. And lemme tell ya. There is nothing dangerous about courier contracts. You pick up the contract. You go to the destination. You get paid. It is as simple as that.Now if you want some pointers on how to reduce risk during a contract, just throw me a mail and I’m certain I can come and show you as a veteran how to navigate the highways of eve.
As a nullsec dweller, trucking my stuff personally through high is a very dangerous thing to do for me. We are a newbro-friendly alliance and under constant wardecs from various groups in highsec.
For that reason alone, courier contracts are an important part of my logistics chain. I always make sure that I collateralize my parcels correctly and I make equally sure that I pay the trucker fairly. Some of my corpmates even say that I am overly generous because I never pay less than 500k per jump.
You are responsible to check whether or not a contract is likely to be “real” or a trap. If you are after the quick money and if you don’t do the necessary security checks beforehand, then the problem is entirely yours. I have yet to lose a parcel and I have yet to wait for more than a day for delivery of my highsec courier job (m contracts are always 1 week / 3 days).
It’s all a matter of perspective…
Thx for this, it was exactly why i was unable to complete the contract. Here is a quote from a ticket i wrote:
{quote}
I still feel that something could be done to make it more difficult to takes someones money so easily. For example, if u create a courier contract to a private facility the courier must be allowed entry to the facility. If u do not have that kind of control over the facility then the destination is invalid. If u do own the facility then u accept the fact that the courier must be allowed to enter to deliver the package. After which the person can be ejected.
I’d be keen to hear your view on this.
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As many have stated there are numerous ways to identify scam contracts. Although one heavily decisive way i was unaware of, being able to see the contractors history. When i took the contract on i was well aware of the private facility endpoint, i was also aware the player was in an NPC corp, so dont presume to judge i took the contract on blindly looking to make money.
As far as, do i understand what courier contracts are for?, of course do i. Its just a thought provoking start. Clearly most of u cant think past your own ideals of stupidity.
As it says at the beginning of this reply, i did not lose the contract because i cant fly straight. I lost it because computer says no. What can be more annoying than, X ERROR.
I would love a Unicorn do u have one?
