Recently went to Koh Tao on one of these busses, it was nearly 2 hours late, the guys driving didnt really have a clue, they failed to drop us off in Chumpon and continued to Surat-thani leaving us stranded at some Derick Tour station where a plate of rice is four times the local price. I was then faced with a 7 hour boat journey when I should have already been on the island. We arrived at nearly 4pm - thats 18 hours to do a 7 hour journey!
Friends on the same bus were going to Kao Lak, they were transfered to a 3rd class government bus with no a/c or toilet for half of their journey.
I will never use this system again and was only forced to on this occasion as it was Songkran and you can't book the government busses. I wont name the tour operator as they all use the same bus company so this applies to them all.
