How do you talk to Kurzick or Luxon NPCs?

Okay, first off I'm not in a guild. Nor do I plan to be. I've gone through the entirety of Prophecies, I have six characters, I've gotten along just fine without a guild and don't care to change.

I bought Factions not too long ago. I just recently got to Tanglewood Copse. Nobody there will talk to me. I try to sell or buy stuff to the merchant and she says that unless I'm an ally of the Kurzicks I'd better go away before she calls the guard.

So this has got me wondering. How am I supposed to open up the NPCs in the Kurzick and Luxon outposts to be able to talk to them? How am I going to be able to buy the Kurzick armor for my Elementalist that I want? Is my gold somehow no good unless I'm allied with the Kurzicks? Am I now required to join a guild, just to be able to sell something in a Kurzick outpost? Because that would be kind of like a slap in the face. Is there anything I can do to align myself with a particular faction, or am I forced to join an alliance just to be able to get armor and sell my drops?

If you want to talk to the luxons, just have more luxon faction than you have of kurzick.

If you want to talk to the kurzicks, just have more kurzick faction than you have of luxon.

Its as simple as that.

Also, when you got equal amount of both faction points, neither will talk to you.