Suburban Express

Check out this page Dennis Toeppen, the notorious owner of Suburban Express, has made about me! Ignorant, bigoted, libelous comments are included for free:
Here’s a sampling of the page he links on the page above:
. I have never mentioned race in any communications with or about him before he decided to make this reference.
Toeppen is encouraging you to Google my name with Suburban Express and he is desperately hyperlinking to the personal hate page he has dedicated to me to increase its search engine ranking. Lol! You can check out the page without helping it’s ranking by visiting the link above or checking out the screenshot I made of it below :-).
Dennis Toeppen, the owner of Suburban Express has been arrested on two charges of harassment:
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Verdict for his criminal case comes out May 2, 2016– edit: has been pushed to this summer:
Find out more about why U of I is repulsed by Toeppen:
Here’s a cute cartoon from Smile Politely:
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Toeppen has reported my photos for not being «of the business». They were, in fact, screenshots of his, the business owner’s, communications with me. Be sure to click on «See all photos from Jessica K. for Suburban Express» at the bottom of my review to see the photos that didn’t make it to the business page! Thanks :-).
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In response to Mr. Toeppen: I think we all know who needs professional help (he edited his comment but suggested I receive professional help). Anyway, he must be confusing me with a different Asian person, like Suey Park. I certainly did not bang on any doors nor am I a «shy little girl», both of which he claimed in his deleted response. «Little»? I could squat Mr. Toeppen *laugh cry emoji*. From where is Mr. Toeppen retrieving these memories? A) He made them up or B) he is confusing me for someone else. The infantilization and stereotyping are real. Yikes. I think I see what’s going on here. He sees that I am Asian, compares me to an utterly unrelated Asian woman whom he clearly reviles, and recalls false events while characterizing me as «shy» and a «little girl» (cue «STAHP PLAYIN TEH RACE CARD»). Let’s be real, lol. Why is Abby not Suey Park? Why is Joe not Suey Park? Lol! None of my communications with or about him have mentioned race or social justice. It’s hilariously absurd.
The buses at that point had no signage and the employees in yellow jackets had not descended from inside the bus yet. When one did, I was able to speak with him and he directed me to the correct bus. Thanks! «Customers, warning, steer clear of Suburban Express» lol.
Below is the original, rather conservative review which has invited his ire.
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I finally ran into the notorious owner of Suburban Express… And the allegations all make sense now. My last experience with Suburban was a clusterfuck and it was only made worse by how outstandingly rude the owner is.
The only upside is the entertainment value of their specious terms and unprofessional website. If you do continue to ride with Suburban, make sure you buy tickets at their office on campus– for some reason, they think that purchasing an online ticket has something to do with taking legal disputes outside of Champaign County. Let’s be real: it’s just a veneer for making it easier for cases to be dismissed for having occurred outside of county and to create an obstacle for students in getting legal help.

I’ve never had a problem with suburban express when I was riding with them.
Even though I heard they were rude and unprofessional, but I liked that they were always on time ready to go.
Today my friend had a bus to ride at 12:30 but since our printer broke down, she was not able to print the paper out of time and BOUGHT A NEW TICKET for 4:15p.m. I think it’s pretty bullshit that people need to buy a new ticket for just missing a bus.
When we got to the bus stop at Woodfield at 4:05 we saw the suburban express bus. We waited sometime because we didn’t see a bus driver and we even knocked on the bus in case he was sleeping in the back seat. He came late around 4:25 — 4:30 which was very unprofessional. I don’t usually mind bus drivers being late because I can understand that they have to take a smoke break/​bathroom break etc. but I heard that Suburban Express sues students and never takes a student even if they are 1 minute late. I think its unprofessional for them to be little hypocrites. DONT SUE STUDENTS IF YOU CANT EVEN LEAVE ON TIME. I called the suburban express and they didn’t even have an emergency number. I’m sure that if I left around 4:20 thinking that this was just a disbanded bus, they would have refused to give me a refund for the ticket that they were late to.

When people told me the nightmares & horror stories surrounding suburban express, I figured it was just talk from disgruntled students. I was most definitely wrong.
They tell you to print out your ticket & after reading enough Google reviews, I knew I had to or else. So I went through the process of ordering online, entering in my credit card which had MORE than sufficient funds, only to receive the error message that something was wrong. I tried this three times by fixing the problems they claimed were there. After doing so, I decided to give up and wait a few hours before trying again.
I waited, same issue. Frustrated, I checked my card to see if there was an issue only to find they had charged me six different times successfully without there being a ticket for me to print. I called suburban express to get it figured out but they refused to talk to me and were incredibly, horribly rude.
I intend to speak with Bank of America in order to get this settled, I’m not about to pay them upwards of $ 100 for a ticket I never received and for a service poorly run. These are some insane people, avoid them at all costs.

Have used Suburban several times as a student at UIUC and never had any problems.
If you plan on using Suburban Express there are a few things you need to keep in mind:
1) Print your ticket as soon as you purchase it online.
2) Arrive at least 10 minutes early.
3) Fold your ticket with the information facing outwards.
4) Bring no more than a backpack and a small duffle bag.
This service takes a cold, straightforward approach to transportation.

saw all the bad Unilocal reviews and their wacky website and was a little scared but we decided to give them a try anyway from Woodfield mall to the University of Iowa. ticket purchase online was no problem and coach bus was there early and ready to go, boarding was easy and driver was competent and bus was clean and it arrived on time in Iowa if not a bit early. I would say if you kid can arrive on time and can behave on bus (it’s sad some college kids can’t) then he/​she will have no problems and it will be a pleasant experience. I Noticed some of the IL. school buses make stops at multiple colleges that is something you will need to consider and look into for a review my review is only for a direct bus to the University of Iowa.

Good morning,
We are using this company for the past 4 years to University of Iowa. We appreciate your
service very much. The buss is clean and always on time. Thank you for that. One thing, I am trying to buy a tickets to my kids and unfortunately no transportation to Iowa… please let us know through the website when you are going to start with University of Iowa. thanks.
Three stars only because there is no way to talk with someone or live a voice mail.

I would recommend any other bus company than this. I’ve never had a pleasant experience with these guys. I have a car now so I don’t have to deal with them.

I used Suburban express fairly often for my first two years of school and they were great. Then in 2012 their service went crazy downhill. I had a bus driver talk on his phone the whole way up to Chicago, with it clearly affecting his attention to the road. Other drivers loudly berated students for things as trivial as not folding their tickets the right way. Clearly the work environment changed. And then I learned Suburban Express was engaging in seriously sordid legal practices like suing students and purposely doing so in Ford county so that Student Legal Services couldn’t get involved, and I quit them for good. Students trying to get home to see their families shouldn’t have to worry about their road safety or being yelled at or being sued if they’re using a professional bus company. Seriously bad business.
Bottom line: Take the train. I’ve only had one delay riding Amtrak and it was maybe 15 minutes. There are outlets for every passenger and the seats are far cleaner, more spacious, and more comfortable. And if you order in a timely manner, it’s way cheaper! Happy travels!

The most dishonest company I have ever dealt with. I have been sued by them for accidentally taking the wrong bus (even though I was not notified of the fine for taking the wrong bus). The staff at the store was extremely rude, I’ve had buses break down on me, and I ended up in court.
If you reference their website they even refer to one of their previous customers as a «spoiled little prick.» Really professional don’t you think?
If I could give one piece of advice to anybody it would be to avoid this service at all costs. They will find every and any way to screw you over. Take Peoria Charter, Amtrak, Greyhound. AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS.

Took a trip back to Champaign-​Urbana after a weekend spent home, but before we left, the bus driver refused to allow one of the sick people on the bus a water bottle because she was already on the bus. I would understand if the bus was moving, but the bus driver was still outside waiting for people to board. The mom had to say that her daughter was dying in order for the bus driver to reluctantly agree to allow the daughter to get her water bottle. Outrageous. And then sarcastically, the mom said «I heard of your great customer service.» The bus driver replied, «If you hate us, then why do you ride with us?» Good point Mr. Bus driver who takes a 20 minute break at an oasis so you can take care of your business without even telling anyone you were getting off the bus.
You asked, «If you hate us, then why do you ride with us?» My response is. «Good point. I will never ride with you again.» I got suburban express coupons in the mail today. Guess where they are at now? Bottom of the trash all ripped up. I should actually mail the ripped tickets to Mr. T.
The train from Illinois Terminal is MUCH faster and their customer service is BEYOND compare to this trash. I didn’t have any problems with suburban express even after I read all of the reviews until this past weekend. Then I realized that these reviews are legitimate and that the owner is out to embezzle money from undergrad students. How pitiful.
Thank you Mr. T for saving me multiple unpleasant $ 60 round trips when I can get a $ 30 round trip taking the train.
Facts about Suburban Express:
Over 200 lawsuits filed since 1994
Over 50 and counting lawsuits filed within this past year

On 9÷16÷2014, a Unilocal user whose display name is «Dennis T.» commented on my reviews:
«Also, your claim that Allerton Charter Coach and Suburban Express are the same company has not basis in fact. Good work — your entire review is entirely unsupported and incorrect.»
Let’s see:
Unsupported? Incorrect?
Also, on every Suburban Express coach or van, there are obvious letterings «Operated by Allerton Charter Coach Inc Champaign IL 61 825», together with the vehicle’s DOT number.
I’ve never expect anyone to deny such an indisputable fact.
Who is Dennis T. I don’t know. But I know Dennis Toeppen. Google him.
Again, whether you want to consider Suburban Express and Allerton Charter Coach to be one company or two, just like whether you want to consider SE Ltd. and SE Inc. to be one company or two, it won’t change the fact that Suburban Express and Allerton Charter Coach have the same agent and the same president. Also, Suburban Express routes are ran with Allerton Charter Coach if not other chartered operators, and Allerton Charter Coach vehicles run Suburban Express’s routes, when they are not chartered somewhere else.
I totally agree with many others who think that Suburban Express’s service itself may not be as bad, but how the company messes up with people is frustrating. Just like how the business owner argues with Unilocal reviewers is frustrating. Arguing with Unilocal reviewers simply can’t raise your star. Instead, posting modest and sincere feedback just like the business owner of Peoria Charter Coach does keeps people happy and content. I can’t understand why a successful entrepreneur with degrees from U of I, Northwestern and U of Chicago doesn’t understand such a straightforward thing, just like I can’t believe how can such an erudite person be arrested on counts of harassment. However it looks to me that he has never learned any lessons from all the drama, so I won’t expect that my words make him change anyway.
Back to topic, my experiences with Suburban Express in its (okay, Allerton Charter Coach’s) vans and coaches are good, not decent but worth at least three or four stars. But every time when it came to Green River Lines the driver messed up with me for ridiculous reasons. Once the driver while driving commanded me impolitely to speak English because he «thought» I was cursing him in my native language. Is this Suburban Express’s fault? Maybe not. I didn’t expect to hear from Suburban Express’s business owner, but if I have to, I hope it could be something like «we will communicate with our partner and reassert our commitment to our passengers», etc. Under no circumstance will I find a feedback full of aggressive and haughty remarks pleasing. Under no circumstance will I trust a company whose owner reacts to others’ reviews in such an irrational manner.

I would honestly say that this service meets the expectations that one would have for a bus company. It seems that many of the negative reviews come from an overall dislike of the owner, rather than evaluating the service itself.
I used this service between 2010 and 2013. I would always use this service around the university breaks, so my busses and drivers were contracted by SubEx. Most of my trips happened without incident and the bus arrived an hour or so earlier than the schedule. I have had 3 trips where a bus driver goes slightly off course (one missed the exit and took the next, and two of them circling Northbrook mall not knowing where the actual stop was). One trip, the bus driver had the GPS, and not only missed the exit to get to Northbrook Mall, but turned around at Buckley Road (see google maps). This incident was the only time I have ever rode where SubEx did not make it to the stop on-​time.
If you read everything on your ticket and in the terms of service, you should expect a pleasant ride.
General Pros:
–Will be at the stops and depart on-​time
–Arrives an hour early to on-​time barring any missed exits
–Very frequent service
–Overall reliability (my busses never broke down)
–Busses were comfortable
–Coupons often given out
–No crying babies next to you
General Cons:
–No electrical outlets available on any busses I have been on (again, my busses were contracted, so this may/​may not be true of the regular SubEx busses).
–Traditional ticketing (cannot bring a confirmation code or scan your ticket from your phone. Also cannot exchange tickets).
–If you get on anywhere before the Armory stop (for a departure from UIUC), you will likely spend 45 min to an hour on campus on the bus.
Cons that may/​may not apply to others depending on final destination:
–More expensive than Amtrak/​Metra combined without a good ($ 15+) coupon (not even including the gas money for someone to pick me up)
–No stops available close to my final destination (I live by Six Flags Great America /​Gurnee Mills).

The horrible customer service and well-​documented intimidation policies and tactics used by the owner of this company, combined with tiny, sticky seats make Suburban Express and their affiliates a dinosaur. Will never use them again. The U of I should really look at cutting any relationship with this outfit including removal from websites, etc

Don’t EVER EVER go on suburban express. I missed my stop and got on the bus from another stop and apparently that constitutes $ 100+ penalty! (which was sent weeks later)
WTF! This is not an airline, you know?
If you look at their website, they are absolutely not responsible for anything yet customers are responsible for everything. So typical of businesses that deal with students. They rip students off and treat them like idiots.

This company does business unethically. I was sued by them for accidentally purchasing a ticket for Saturday when I intended to ride on Friday, and then using the ticket on Friday like I meant to. There were plenty of empty seats on the bus when I rode, so it’s not like I prevented someone else from getting on. And if my ticket was wrong, they should’ve just prevented me from getting on the bus when they checked it. I had no idea my ticket was for the wrong day and they sued me anyways.
DO NOT RIDE WITH THEM. Literally any other option is better. Most are the same price or cheaper, and even if they weren’t, I’d say paying an extra $ 5 not to get sued is worth it.

Today I was cleaning out old files from my computer and found this complaint letter I had sent to Suburban Express in 2009. At the time, I didn’t know of any way to spread the word about their disgraceful business practices. Hopefully now that there’s Unilocal,more people can be warned about them.
My story is similar to Elizabeth M’s… I had, for safe measure, made an extra copy of my ticket to UofI. When I accidentally used the copy for my return trip, instead of the appropriate ticket, I was fined $ 100. I wrote them multiple times, expecting to have no trouble in clearing up the matter, since my bank records showed payment for two tickets. In the end, there was nothing I could do to deny the charge — all I was able to do was report them to the BBB.
Fining customers for honest mistakes is NO way to run a business — it makes me sick that they spend their efforts coning students out of money rather than bettering their own service. No matter how careful you think you can be in keeping tickets straight, I would urge everyone to NOT support a business that operates in such an immoral way.

I first rode Suburban a little over 10 years ago. Back then, tickets were pricier, and you couldn’t do this fancy online ordering stuff. I rode a few more times, especially when they started having to compete with the other bus lines (I think that’s when Suburban moved away from fixed price tickets).
The seats on Suburban’s buses are pretty narrow and it’s not a particularly comfortable ride. This dude who sat next to me one time was carrying all his belongings in a garbage bag. No joke. Suburban brought the flavor of Lower Wacker to Champaign-​Urbana. And yeah, every time I rode, full bus. The drivers were never really worth mentioning: they silently took your ticket, silently let you on, silently drove the bus, and silently let you out. I guess at least they were never insane. I mean, yeah, it’s cheaper than driving, and probably safer. I’m sure they have more stops now too.
Suburban’s customer service has not changed at all. Don’t ever take a cell phone call in their storefront. You will get chucked out and banned from riding. I don’t know if they actually enforce that «three minute» cell phone policy on the buses, but it always kind of bothered me. Chilling effect, basically. Same for all the lawsuit stuff I’ve been hearing about. I don’t care if you are in the right, it’s lethal to a business to let that sort of problem go out of hand.
I think if I were coming from the south suburbs down to Chambana, I might ride with Suburban again, if only because I’d otherwise have to go all the way into the city to take Amtrak. Otherwise, no. The price is wrong, and it’s a needless risk that I’ll do something wrong by mistake, or there’ll be a misunderstanding, and I’ll suddenly find an extra $ 500 on my credit card with no explanation until I reverse the charge and get threatened with a lawsuit.
One last thing: I heard that the charter line Suburban’s owner runs (Allerton Charter Coach) got its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration safety rating reduced from «acceptable» to «conditional» earlier this year. I don’t know how intermingled the operations of the two are, but they really need to sort that out!
EDIT: I originally wrote above that I might consider riding again. I take that back. I would not ride Suburban Express if its owner paid me (presumably because such payment would be subject to unreasonable, incoherent and probably invalid contract provisions). Yes, this is entirely because of the idiotic business owner response below that either deliberately or incompetently misstates and twists the meaning of my original review. #shotsfired

NO NO NO NO NO NO. DO NOT. They are never on time which will have you waiting in the brutal cold (this is based on my winter experience). You’ll call them and ask for the status of the bus, which is always wrong by 15 – 30 mins. If you decide to sit somewhere warm to defrost your frozen limbs a bit, the bus will then decide to come and leave you. Just a huge headache. Plus they do no refunds and have awkward hours so it is hard to get customer service. Overall just a hot mess. Amtrak is the only service to/​from Champaign to Chicago that is okay, take an earlier train if you must but avoid this Suburban Express and all other bus companies in the area for that matter.

I will never use their service again even if i have no other option. They filed a lawsuit against me too and i paid though I was utterly confused as to what is going on here. Being an international student, I thought it is better not to get into trouble and i paid them immediately. I later found out they like suing their customers who are mostly students. I think i might have made a mistake and showed them my return ticket instead. The bus driver should be checking these kind of mistakes but he said nothing. This is a good trick for making extra money.
PLEASE BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL IF YOU ARE TRAVELLING WITH THEM.

For a long time, I remained silent about Suburban Express because they employ tyrannical tactics to threaten/​discourage anyone who speaks honestly about them. In fact, after only vaguely alluding to their service in another review (I didn’t even mention them by name), I found myself immediately banned from their website (thought-​crime, anyone?).
Tickets don’t sell at fixed prices; buy in advance unless you’re a student with access to your parents’ Mastercard and can pay the premium for last-​minute fares. Even if you buy a ticket, you’re not guaranteed a seat as Suburban Express oversells all of their trips. If you’re one of the last pickup stops (such as ISR), you’ll likely need to trample some people just to claim one of the few remaining seats. This is a pretty f’ed-up practice if you advertise yourself as providing transit to the airport – I guess those people who need to make flights are just S.O.L.
One time I boarded the bus and took a seat at the front. The woman driving the bus didn’t seem to know the way to the highway and actually solicited directions from the passengers.
On top of all of these questionable business practices, Suburban Express also loves employing hostile language on its website, tickets, etc. In particular, several lines of your «ticket» include information about how Suburban Express reserves the right to charge your credit card automatically with attorney’s fees and the «costs» associated with activities such as using rude language when speaking to the company.
DO YOU REALLY FEEL COMFORTABLE HAVING YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION ON FILE WITH THESE PEOPLE?
Oh, and advice for UIUC kids who haven’t withdrawn their student legal fees: you also have access to a university attorney if you need to get down and dirty.
EDIT: So I’ve received a message from another Unilocal user explaining that UIUC legal services only handles cases in Champaign county – Suburban Express has a shady practice of filing lawsuits in a different county to prevent you from having access to student legal aid. …Do you want to be in a situation where you’re being sued by legal trolls because you broke some arbitrary company rules AND have no access to a lawyer? FYI, the Daily Illini (UIUC’s student newspaper) published an article showing that the company does frequently file lawsuits against students: