(04 Nov 2014, 6:36 pm)Andreos1 wrote But we can guess, surmise and speculate - until we find out the reason behind the anomalies.
Just like we have all done at times, throughout the forum.
We might get an 'insider' trying to justify the differences or we may get a formal response from GNE, which could be put into this forum.
The social media pages provide more than enough anomalies as it is - without any online fare checking facility.
Of the 'insiders' which remain, I highly doubt any of them would justify the choices that the company have made to enthusiasts (especially on what could be considered quite a commercially sensitive matter). I suspect that they're quite limited to what they can say on forums like this as it is - as they're covered by Social Media policies - so I think that'd be asking a bit much of them...
I'm not excusing the pricing anomalies, but it's likely that they have always existed (for all companies - not just GNE). As you say, the Social Media pages provide more than enough anomalies as it is, but a couple of years ago, customers could not have queried fares using this platform and likewise I'd argue that we as enthusiasts wouldn't have discussed the topic in so much detail as a result. This extends - as we have already discussed in other threads - to operational issues. Breakdowns, missing buses, and late running buses, are all more frequently reported than they were in the past. Part of the reason why will be linked to the increasing use of Social Media.
As a general statement: I rarely check the bus operators' Social Media pages in comparison to other members of this forum, but I have seen more customers querying fares for Go North East than the other 'big two', and perhaps this is why this thread is primarily dominated by Go North East pricing anomalies. Having the largest network perhaps accounts for more pricing anomalies too, though I suspect Arriva's fares would be more regularly discussed if it was simply down to this. I honestly do think that if the purpose behind this thread was to uncover the reason behind the anomalies we have discussed, then someone volunteers to e-mail the company in question. We may or may not get justification, but I certainly believe that the Customer Service teams would pass the details onto the relevant department within the company for review...