Suburban Express (aka illinishuttle.com, bigbus.com, lincolnlandexpress.com) proved to be a horrific experience for me. The driver forgot to close the side doors to the luggage compartment and I lost my luggage two hours from home. He had no idea what to do and became uncooperative. He refused to give me his last name, left me out in the cold, and only called in upon my insistence.
What’s worse, the president of the company, Dennis Toeppen, responded to my serious complaint by saying that I was a “pushy fellow” and that the driver was one of their nicest. If that was the case, I could not imagine how unpleasant the other drivers must be. Mr. Toeppen also claimed that he drove seven hours on the route of the bus to find my suitcase. However, the driver had stopped and closed the side doors within a few miles of beginning the trip, which indicates that either Mr. Toeppen is not very bright or he is a complete liar.
In the end, I was fortunate enough to have my luggage returned at the expense of a Good Samaritan. Mr. Toeppen then offered to repair the suitcase, which seemed disingenuous given that he had no idea whether the items inside it were intact. Would I care about the suitcase if half the stuff inside was soiled/broken? I decided that I was lucky, but further correspondence was futile.
With Suburban Express, I’ve come across several ploys, such as ‘no refunds’ written everywhere and isolating students from their parents, which should come off as red flags. If your complaint costs them time, they may charge your credit card without your knowledge.
The idea behind looking at reviews is usually to see if the good outweigh the bad. However, for the business of transportation, in which reliability is key, positives should not simply cancel out negatives. Instead, satisfactory, expected service should be considered neutral, and instances of bad experiences should weigh decisively on your final choice to use the service. I strongly recommend considering other options.
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