Quest Bugs when questing in a Party

I have experienced what might be a fairly consistent bug involving being unable to complete or receive rewards from quests if playing in a public party.

Example One: Allflame Sidequest
I was questing in a party in the Ship Graveyard. One of the other players must have started the Allflame sidequest. I do not remember talking to the Pirate Ghost. We descended as a group into the Graveyard Cave and killed the boss. But becasue I did not know one of my other party members already activated the Allflame quest, i did not see an Allflame item to pick up. I left the game to go eat or whatever. When I returned to play some solo, I could not complete the Allflame sidequest -- it was in my active quest log, but the Allflame would not drop.I tried two fixes:

1) Join a party who was beginning the quest. This made the Allflame drop, but when I picked it up, the game crashed.

2) Join a party containing a member (i do not know it if was the leader, nor do I know if he or she was the only member in the group to have the quest) who was returning the Allflame but did not yet actually approach the Ghost. I followed frantically and arrived just in time to fight the Pirate and his minions. This fixed the bug and i was able to go to town to complete the quest and get a skill point.

Example Two: Merveil Quest

I completed this quest while in a group. Got lots of good loot of fher body and returned to town to speak to all three townspeople. They all had "!" over their head, but I received no rewards.

1) The townsfolk don't give any rewards for the Merveil quest; her loot is the reward
2) I'm once again bugged in that one of my party mates got rewards but I did not.

If the case is #1, I have only the first bug to report; if the case is #2, I suspect there to be a fundamental bug with Questing in Party/Groups.


Is there basic information on Parties that I am missing? If so, might that information be posted somewhere more obvious, say in its own tab in the Social Panel?

Thanks! I love playing this game.