Hard mode dropped helm off last boss, and helm off another boss, I forget which one.

Do you have all of your DPS hiding behind the pillars? You should have some that can stay out and dps the whole time and just make sure they are near the healers, shouldn't be too hard for them to heal through.

I've experienced something similar, here is my scenario Level 50, all of my companions are max affection All of my professions are maxxed Monday night before a patch, sent out 5 companions on 340 disposable missions Logged on tuesday after patch, all 5 failed... I've only experienced a few cases where missions failed, and it was only 1 here or there, but never 5 at the same time which leads me to believe I am either extremely unlucky or there is a bug somewhere.

They always drop at least 1 from the last boss in hard mode dungeons. I have yet to see one in operations.

I bought my rakata items from the trainer

I am fine w/ schematics being bop and even the item that they make being bop as well. I am not sure why it really matters. You shouldn't expect everything to be handed to you on a silver platter. Not everything in this game is meant to be bind on equip.

Honestly you are going to find this in any MMO you play. Its part of the game, some people will stealth in and capture quest objectives, others will fight their way to them and some people just come along behind others and take them. You really just need to toughen up and move on. Its not like the respawn timers are incredibly long anyway.