This sub is very negative on SubEx but the true reality is if they were really horrid, they would be out of business regardless of the freshman.

Incorrect. There is no market correction for this, it is a classic case of starting as a hero and living long enough to see yourself become the villain. Dennis Toeppen began SubEx as a UI freshman in 1983 specifically to undercut Greyhound, which then had a monopoly on bus transportation. He succeeded, overcoming investigations and other tactics to capture most of the student market and drive Greyhound to severely slash its fares to compete. His service has always and will always rely upon students, and unless you're able to inform each and every incoming freshman of the dangers, the ever-refreshing customer pool will always overcome any negative market influence from bad service. He's the only one with an office on campus, he's the only one who focuses solely on getting students from campus to specific points in the suburbs that he has figured out are the most lucrative options, and his zealousness at protecting that market is evident in his tactics on here and elsewhere. It's a little ironic that he's now trying to call Peoria Charter's safety record into question and distributing fliers warning students away from them, among other things, because now he's the Goliath and they're the upstart (in this market) encroaching on his territory. How the tables have turned.

They are not complete dictators ready to sue as soon as you simply inch over a rule.

Indeed they are, bringing lawsuits in small-claims court — 104 of them filed from November 2012 to May 2013, some for infractions that took place years before — for as little as the price of a ticket. Those lawsuits were initially filed in Paxton in Ford County, and were dropped after students and others complained that this put defendants at a disadvantage because they had to find transportation to appear in Ford County Circuit Court and could not use Student Legal Services, which only handles cases filed in Champaign County. A couple months after Toeppen promised in that article to file to have all those cases dismissed, he went back and asked to refile about a quarter of them in Champaign County, and eventually earned approval to do that from a Ford County judge.

There's nothing illegal about any of the above, and I'm sure there are legitimate cases of fraud that he needs to protect against, but he went about it in the most underhanded way possible, changing his tactics only after enough public outcry was registered and going back on what he said even after that.

There are also several instances of people reporting terrible customer service, or being refused service because the driver thought they took too long or other arbitrary reasons. Not having been there, there's no way to know for sure who's "right," but the system as it stands leaves all the leverage and power in the drivers' hands, with not only no check against them but also possible further legal action if you talk about your experience on any public forum.

Sure, there are more important things to take a moral stand on, but if no ever did, this wouldn't change. And, hell, if Dennis had never taken a stand, fares wouldn't have dropped to begin with. A market where monopoly power simply shifts from one business to another is not a healthy market.