About two weeks ago, I was surfing the UIUC subreddit website. I came across a post that called on students to boycott the local bus company, Suburban Express. The post stated that allegedly, a student accidentally gave the bus driver the wrong ticket and was fined $150. I showed my roommate the Reddit post and I pointed out what I thought was its absurdity. I claimed that it’s not that hard to double check and make sure you’re handing the bus driver the right ticket and he stared and me and just responded by saying, “Dude, you’re an idiot. Suburban Express sucks.” 

We shortly debated the legitimacy of Suburban Express. I said that in all the times I’ve used their services, not once have I experienced any problems. He said that he’s had bad experiences with Suburban Express. He told me about other encounters he has read about on Reddit and also cited some nasty reviews the company received on Yelp.

I took him at his word, but half-heartedly. Being my occasionally stubborn self, I still thought they were an OK company and didn’t think much about them.

I later read a report by The Daily Illini about an incident where a student was banned from using Suburban Express for confronting a bus driver after he allegedly made discriminatory comments to an international student for being unable to understand the instructions she was being told. 

Earlier this week, a Reddit post surfaced on my Facebook newsfeed that claimed that Suburban Express filed 96 lawsuits against students. In disbelief, I found out that Suburban Express filed numerous lawsuits for minor tort and contract damages that range from $0.01 to $250.

I was taken aback by all the scandals surrounding Suburban Express, so I asked my roommate to show me the posts he read from Reddit and Yelp and I was shocked at the things people had to say. Normally, if there are one or two bad reviews you take them with a grain of salt. But there weren’t one or two bad reviews, there were pages of them. I was slightly infuriated with some of the things I read and I finally decided that enough is enough, I have to say something about this.

Time and time again, posts and forums have been surfacing about Suburban Express. After considering the allegations, I can comfortably say that I have never seen a company that lacks as much integrity and professionalism as Suburban Express. 

Since my first day here on campus, I’ve noticed that Suburban Express has made itself very salient. They disrupt the learning environment by posting flyers in classrooms, I’ve seen flyers that emphasize the word “sex” of Suburban Express so that it is the first word that jumps out at you, and they pushed forward a smear campaign that took advantage of the downward spiral of Lincolnland Express, one of its largest competitors, until LEX was eventually shut down by the government..

Instead of considering the extraneous circumstances that could potentially plague its customers, they capitalize on them by creating terms and conditions and policies that are unfair and inconvenient to the people they should be serving. For example, if “your ticket is used for transportation on the wrong date or trip or between the wrong stops, you agree to pay the applicable full fare plus $100.” 

In a public statement that was in response to Jeremy Leval, the student who confronted the bus driver for making discriminatory comments, they referred to him as, “a meddling, self-aggrandizing student who has chosen to use this incident to promote his own agenda, which seems to be to call as much attention to himself as possible.”Soon afterwards, Dennis Toeppen, the owner of Suburban Express, said in an email, “We take our obligation to serve all passengers with respect and professionalism very seriously.”

There is a double standard if I have ever heard one. 

Suburban Express has been perpetuating its unethical business practices on this campus for far too long. They thought wiping Lex out of the business would make things easier for them, but it turns out they don’t even need another company to ruin its reputation. Their tedious policies, response to the Jeremy Leval incident, and abundance of lawsuits is enough for them to do it on their own. 

Whether this is the last straw with Suburban Express I don’t know. But what I do know is that competing bus companies can certainly expect an increase in their tickets sales within the upcoming weeks.

Matt is a freshman in LAS. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @matthewpasquini.