Noticed the same. I was getting capped messages at apprehensively after turning in few stacks of scalps. Orc/gnoll kills give me +faction message still (not sayinc that I'm capped), and also the scalp turn-ins still raise HighpassGuards. Up to warmly now.
So I guess merchants can be the same, keep turning scalps despite capped message and you'll probably hit apprehensively at some point.
__________________
Brutillus 60 Dragon Hero Bracer Shadowknight - <Awakened>
 |