This is on my ranger Drakrin, Whenever I try to upgrade my sc aug from corporal to sgt it just returns my corporal aug to me even tho the trader is telling me to hand in my aug. syduck: here is a picture maybe that will help explain it better.
I think I read something about these pips needing to be handed to some other NPC to upgrade them due to a bug. I never had this problem when I did these quests but maybe try that. I mostly used the Everfrost camp to upgrade.
Ya it seems to be the barbarian in badlands that bugs it out. Same thing happened to my bard now i just have to wait for someone to give me the next aug so i can finish =(