OK I raced over to Toys R Us after Zumba this morning to see how this deal would actually work. It didn’t go exactly as I thought it would but I am super excited nonetheless.
If you missed out on this- I posted it here. I can not stress enough that everyone’s transaction will probably be a little different and I can’t wait to hear how it goes for you!
In the end I paid $7.71 today and I already paid $10 for the deposit. So that makes $17.71 total with tax and I got the Blu Ray combo pack, a free watch, a $10 gift card for next time, an iced tea and a $5 deposit toward Beauty and the Beast!
Tinkerbell was $29.99 as I thought plus the little pink watch was free
I paid a $5 deposit for Beauty and the Beast
Iced Tea as a filler $1.59
I got $10 off which was the deposit that I already paid
Plus I got $10 off for paying a $5 preorder deposit for Beauty and the Beast
I used the $10 off Tinkerbell coupon
So the grand total was $7.71!! I was thinking I would try to use the $5/25 coupon on top of it but the total was $17.71 before I gave the $10 Tinkerbell coupon- so it was too low to use the coupon. I thought this was an awesome deal so I am not going to complain at all!
*NOTE: I think I was lucky with a very pleasant cashier. There was a lady in line next to me arguing up a storm and I saw she had the preorder cards so I am not sure what her situation was. Every store is different and some might give you a terrible time. I know some will refuse internet coupons- so you will have to try your luck and see what happens.
UPDATE: I think there is a problem with the Tinkerbell coupon once they scan for the free gift card. You can read the comments below for more details- so if you have any issues at all you might just skip using the $10 Tinker Bell coupon and then see if they can simply give you cash back for the coupon at customer service. That is actually what I did.
They told my sister and I that we had to pay for the $10 gift card!!! We were totally confused.
The card they gave was clear as mud so I was not 100% either. If they just don’t get involved and scan the bar codes on the cards it all works beautifully. If you cashier decides they are smarter than the cards- you are in trouble. Really Tinker Bell works out to be free so I am stoked!
$29
($10 BandB promo credit)
($10 coupon)
$10 gift card you can use on BandB)
Plus the watch!
It worked for me just like that. I got 2 and have to go back to buy 2 more which i will do in the same transaction this time. That way i should be able to use the 5/25.
Do you know if we have to buy the movie from the store that we pre-ordered it at?
My total was also $7.63 bought a soda as a filler (I am in FL. so I am sure the difference is the tax rate) I was very lucky to have a great cashier and a great manager, because it was a very tricky transaction.
The cashier first scanned the $5/$25 and the computer accepted it, but when he scanned all the other coupons the system kicked off the $5/$25. He said that system rejected it because my total wasn’t enough to use the coupon. I said okay beacuse I knew that the use of that coupon might not have worked.
So at this point my total was $7.63, but he hadn’t done the $10 gift card part. When he scanned the barcode for the gift card part my new total was $10.99. We both looked at each other somewhat confused, and I questioned why my total changed over $3. I said my total shouldn’t have changed because of the gift card promo. He was dumbfounded. He said lets do the whole transaction over and see what happens. After he rerang everything it still came up to $10.99.
When I went over the math with him, I said it should be about $7.50. He said I can’t figure it out, let me call the manager. She came over and they did the transaction a 3rd time. It still came up to $10.99. She agreed with me that it should be around the $7.50. She noticed that for some reason the computer took away one of the other discounts after they scanned the $10 Manufacturer Coupon. So without applying the $10 MQ my total was $17.63.
So she said go ahead pay the $17.63, and then I will refund you the $10.00 for the MQ. I said no problem, and walked out paying the $7.63 and had my Blu-Ray, Tinkerbell watch, $10 Gift Card, Soda, and the prepayment for Beauty and the Beast. It was very confusing but thank god I had a nice cashier and manager that were willing to make it work.
On a side note – when I looked at my receipt that totaled the $17.63, the Tinkerbell Blu Ray had a price of $9.99 after deducting my prepaid amt. and the beauty and the beast pre pay promotion. I think that when they tried to scan my $10 MQ the system kicked it off because it recognized that the blu ray was only $9.99. That’s my personal opinion about probably what happened. But thank goodness the manager was still willing to take the MQ of and give me the $10 refund.
Sorry this was very long, but just wanted to share my experience with this deal.
So, should it not be feasible to do the following in this order:
1) Ring up the Tinkerbell movie and $5 deposit for Beauty for a subtotal of $34.99
2) Present $5/$25 coupon = $29.99
3) Scan card for $10 pre-purchase deposit for Tinkerbell = $19.99
4) Recieve $10 credit for pre-purchase of Beauty = $9.99
5) Present $10 off coupon for Tinkerbell = $0
6) Recieve $10 gift card
$0 plus tax, plus $10 gift card, netting out to a total of $5 spent?
They told me I had to pay for the gift card too!
DD- I think the $5/25 might work if you don’t mention the pre-sell at all and give that to them first right after they scan the Blu Ray. Otherwise it all gets scanned in a big blur and your total will be far under $25. The issue I ran into was that the Blu Rays were not available to buy- they only had them for pre-sell customers. So I had to give my presell card to get the Blu Ray.
If you take my filler item away to simplify I spent $15 total- $5 of which is a deposit for BandB and the original $10 I spent to reserve TB. I got a $10 gift card back and I will get my $5 deposit back later. So my net was 0 even without the $5/25 coupon. Does that make sense? I think I am confusing myself.
Nicole- I would think so only because they might have only ordered enough to cover pre-sells. Why don’t you just call the store you would prefer to shop at and ask if they have extra copies available and if it will be a problem for you to go there.
The fine print on teh deposit ticket says:
“Cashier: Scan the movie and gift card, then scan the coupon balance due barcode and the gift card barcode. Total the transaction.”
This would seem to indicate that the gift card is charged, then deducted, so in a sense it should be paid for, then removed. Perhaps I should ammend my list above to read
1.5) Ring up $10 gift card = $45.99
and
4.5 ) Receive $10 credit for $10 gift card
I called 1800toysrus and talked to customer service and they are going to send me a $10 Gift card in the mail. I should get it in 7-10 business days.
I paid $6.01 with your senario
Ok, these are probably really stupid questions, but how does this deal work if you didn’t prepay for Tinkerbell? I want to go purchase it….and I’m all for putting the $5 deposit down on B&B. I guess I’m not sure where the extra $10 off is coming from? Are most places accepting the internet coupons and Is the watch only available today? Thanks in advance!!
I had issues too today. My $5/25 didn’t work, they said it had to be $25 after coupons. Oh well. Then for some reason, the register overcharged me $5. I ended up paying $10 something for the presale of Beauty and the beast and for the tinkerbell movie. I went back in to figure out why and they couldn’t figure it out. They ended up refunding me the tinkerbell movie and it gave me back the $5 it overcharged me. So I paid a little over $5, just the price for the presale for beauty and the beast. So pretty much, I only paid $10 for Tinkerbell (which I spent when getting the presale) and the watch. Not bad at all.
I had the same experience as Madison. However, the manager was not as kind so I ended up paying $1.46 more getting the gift card.
Brandi if you missed the presell your deal is not nearly as good 🙁 But you can still get on board for Beauty and the Beast and Toy Story. I was pretty detailed in the original post outlining the deal so check that if you still have questions:
Tinker Bell $29.99 + free watch (I would call and make sure they actually have extra copies)
Deposit for Beauty and the Beast $5
Subtotal: $34.99
Use $5/25 TRU coupon if they let you
Use $10 TinkerBell coupon
Get $10 off for paying deposit on B and B
If you can do that- your total is $10 or so. Then you get a $5 deposit credited to your purchase of Beauty and the Beast- so you really only paid $5. If you can not use the $5/25 TRU coupon, you paid $10. So you just missed out on the free gift card.
wow that is really amazing. good job! There is no Toys R Us nearby me. i have my upgrade coupon for beauty and the beast and will use @ target, so easy! 🙂
I was so confused with this deal and all of the discounts. I’m still not sure exactly how it happened. but fortunately the cashier seemed to know what he was doing. They had customers buying the blu-ray earlier today and sorted things out by the time I got there. The $5 coupon did not work because of all of the discounts. And pre-ordering blu ray/ DVDs will not count towards the $25 total (found this out last week). The cashier had to refund the money for the pre-pay for Tinkerbell, put it on a gift card and then use it towards my purchase. Anyway, I paid nothing (zero tax here in NH) for the watch, tinkerbell blue-ray and pre-order for the Beauty & Beast blu-ray combo. And I received a $10 gift card
Sounds like a great deal!
I am in the same boat as Brandi, I wasn’t able to preorder the tinkerbell movie. I was wondering with the two BandB coupons(preorder $5 and upgrade q), what should you pay for that movie when it comes out.
It was really confusing and it wasn’t until I got home and put it on paper that it made sense to me.
$5.00 BB deposit
$9.99 Tink balance (because of BB preorder)
$10.00 Gift Card
-$10.00 Tink promo for gift card
$1.00 tax
Total $15.99
She had to do an adjustment for the $10 manf. coupon because she closed it out too quickly. Then realized that $10 coupon wouldn’t work because Tink was $9.99. I suggested she do a coupon adjustment on the original receipt because I paid the $10 deposit. That worked and I ended up with a credit to my Visa for the $10 coupon adjustment.
My cashier was really nice and flexible, there was another lady who had the same transaction a few registers down who started before I did and she was still getting it figured out when I left.
So total out of pocket including deposits for Tink and BB was $15.99 and got the $10 gift card. The cost for Tink was $1 for tax.
Overall it was well worth the time to get such a great deal on the Blue Ray and the bonus watch for free!
When I went in this afternoon, the people were SUPER nice! The manager said there were problems with the B&B pre order, but everything worked super smooth for me. I was not able to use the $5/25 but that was ok – (the girl said that it didn’t matter what order you used the coupons in, it wouldn’t accept it). I walked out paying a total of $16.96, but that was because they let me buy a 2nd Tinkerbell Watch (I have twins and there was NO way I could have just given them one!), so for a grand total of $26.96, I got the movie, 2 watches, the pre-pay for B&B and a $10 GC for next time.
PS – THANK YOU CHARLENE for posting this deal (and all it’s confusion)! My husband thinks I’m a bit nuts to be doing all of this, but come Christmas my girls are going to be sooo excited! AND, I am soooo excited to be saving all this money! 🙂
Thank you all….I’m gonna give it a try tomorrow!!!
I went this evening and our Toys Our Us had pulled all the pre-order forms for Beauty in the Beast. I was told something was wrong with them and they were not sure if they were going to get them back 🙁 My whole plan was crushed. It doesn’t sound like that was anywhere else though!
Where does the free watch come from?
April that was just a pleasant surprise! I bet they advertise it this week but I didn’t know that was coming.
Aysha- Did they pull the Toy Story forms? I wonder if you could skip BandB and do that instead?
I did this deal today and the cashier told me after they scan the giftcard they cannot scan any coupons. So I just took my coupons to customer service and got my cash back.
Ugh. Now I am scared to try this tomorrow. Hopefully my store got all the problems figured out today. I know though that I will need to go when I am NOT in a hurry in case problems arise. Wish me luck.
I got mine too, but dont get $ 10 for pre order BB,I dont know why and I dont even got the watch, the manager said that as supply last, but the add didnt say that and I still had the add .
What should I do???
Pls help
Jasmine, I think you should just call TRU corporate and see what they say. That is terrible! You make sure to tell them you preordered and you were there the day of release and if they did not have enough on hand for even one day then they should bother to advertise the offer!
I would be polite but firm and I bet they figure something out for you.
800-toysrus
Thanks Charlene, I will call them tomorrow and let you know the out come
If you didn’t use the 5/25 coupon why did you buy the ice tea filler?
Barbara- I bought it assuming I would be able to. I had no idea how the register would ring up these movies so based upon the math, it should have been fine.
I did the whole deal today in NJ, worked out great for me, PLUS if you enter the code on disneymovierewards you can get a free Tinkerbell charm bracelet (pay $2.35 shipping), and if you get Beauty & the Beast and enter that code they will send you a free rose charm to add to the bracelet!
I had the worst experience at my store (Lima, OH)! After standing at customer service for 2 hours why they tried to figure it out. (They told be about 5 different reasons why it wasn’t working… just guessing) They said they could not do anything about it, they refused to do a post coupon. I told them other stores were honoring the deal but they said no they were not, basically calling me a liar! So after making a trip across town just to get the deal and waiting for 2 hours for them to figure it out, I came home with nothing.
The one lady kept telling me I couldn’t use the $10 coupon because I already paid the $10 (pre-sale). I said I should not be penalized for pre-ordering!!!
To top it off when I pre-ordered Tink the cashier was extremely rude when I asked about the deal and the customer behind me couldn’t believe she treated me that way. I ended up walking away from the register (with my children) while she continued talking extremely rude to me!
This store has lost my business!
I was planning on purchasing a $600 baby jogger stroller from them but I have now decided to buy it some place else!
I’m a little bummed by how this ended up working out for me. For some reason, the $10 manufacturer coupon, when scanned, only took $5.97 off instead of the full $10, so my total came to $10.03… and I didn’t even get the free watch! When I questioned the manager about it, he was very rude saying I shouldn’t have even been able to use it at all because it says it cannot be used in conjunction with any other special offers. Lame. I’m going to try to call corporate and see what they can tell me. Thanks for all your help with this, Charlene! I could never have put together such a great scenario!
I filled a complaint on today’s experience with 1800toysrus. But I also sent them a general email, (see below). I think it would be great if we could all bombard them with these complaints and then maybe they will finally do something about their lack of clear, written, policies and receipts. I am not shopping there until and if this is done.
To Whom it may concern:
I am highly dissatisfied with my recent visit(s) to my local Toys-R-Us store (Lima, Ohio). My reasoning’s:
1. Extremely rude cashiers/customer service on multiple trips.
2. Extremely difficult to read receipts.
3. No written coupon/promo policy.
4. Inconsistencies between stores and cashiers within the same store.
My recommendations:
1. I would like to suggest that you seriously consider a formal customer service training program for all store employees, nationwide.
2. I would also suggest that you issue a clearly written coupon policy and store promo policy that is used at ALL stores nationwide.
There is a large online community that shares on sales, coupons, deals, etc. and I would have you know that there is quite a bit of negative publicity regarding Toys-R-Us. Yes there is some positive publicity, but with that is much more negative publicity as others are not able to get the same deals! Might I suggest that you thoroughly read some of these blogs and their comments to get an idea of how your lack of policies are providing a great marketing campaign for you free of charge! You may also want to not the amount of readers that subscribe to these blogs!
1. http://hip2save.com/2010/09/toys-r-us-tinkerbell-and-beauty-and-the-beast-blu-raydvd-combo-packs-only-10-each.html
2. http://knoxvilleonadime.blogspot.com/2010/09/dear-toys-r-us-can-i-get-my-wasted-time.html
3. http://myfrugaladventures.com/2010/09/my-tinkerbell-trip/
I was planning on purchasing a $600+ baby jogger double stroller from your online store but after my recent experiences, I am now purchasing it elsewhere. Not to mention any other future purchases that will be made at other retailers.
Extremely dissatisfied,
April Boyer
I had a fairly good experience. I prepaid the $10 for Tinkerbell, and was able to use the $10/1 Disney coupon and the $5/$25 TRU coupon, plus I still got the $10 GC. Basically, it was like I paid $5 for the Tinkerbell BluRay Combo Pack. The guys were really nice at my TRU, and they said they had worked out all the kinks with this deal except for the Beauty and Beast $10 deal. For some reason, he said if you preordered the BatB too, it would only give you either the giftcard or the $10 off. I just decided to forget about the BatB DVD for now, and take my $5 Tinkerbell (since I knew how bad other people’s experiences had been).
First of all, thank you, Charlene, for putting this deal together for us. I would have NEVER figured it out on my own, nor would I have even bothered to pre-order Tinkerbell, I could take it or leave it, but I did want B&B and Toy Story 3, so it made sense to do this deal. Anyhoo….this is what I did today at TRU:
Sorry game $7.99
Sorry Game $9.02 (no clue why it didn’t ring up $7.99)
Monopoly Free due to the buy 2 get 1 free
Tinkerbell Blu Ray $29.99
Watch Free
$10 Gift Card free
$5 deposit on Beauty and Beast
Minus the $10 deposit, $10 for preordering B&B, 3/$4 coupons for the games, and the $10 Tinkerbell coupon.
I paid $11.82 including tax. I’m very happy with that.
I did give them the $5/$25 coupon, but on the receipt it shows 0.00 taken off, the coupon is listed, but no deduction. Also one of the sorry games rang up for $9.02 instead of 7.99. Weird, I guess I could have got another $6.03 off possibly if I tried hard enough, but I was happy with what I got. I needed another game of sorry due to lost pieces and the other two games will be used as christmas gifts. Plus I have the $10 gift card to use.
I feel bad for everyone that has had a hard time, It was no big deal at my store. The cashier rang up all my purchases and then scanned all the coupons. Nothing beeped and she didn’t question anything. The $5/$25 didn’t work out, but neither one of us noticed at the time.
Charlene, I only asked about the filler because I was trying to figure out if I needed to get one for any other reason. I really appreciate all that you do and I really do follow a lot of what you do step by step so if you buy a filler I probably would, too. You are so clever the way you figure everything out. I’m sorry that you are frequently the guinea pig who has to go up to the register with the fillers. I shop a lot in the middle of the night at drug stores, etc. and there usually isn’t any one behind me so the cashiers are very patient and I can play with the coupons and fillers. Thank you sooooo much.
Its all trial and error for me too Barbara 🙂 I never know how things will really work until I get there- I mean who would think this crazy deal would work out like this? I do my trips on Friday nights or Saturday nights when it seems nice and quiet as well. Much less stressful- plus I can ditch my kids. I am clever when I sit with a calculator and the computer but in math I am a mess so if I have to make quick changes in the stores I usually mess up.
how can i printout the coupon for tinkerbel? When I go to print it, it says that I have already printed it ?
I had such a dimwit manager tonight at TRU CS! First, the “free watch” wasn’t free – it rang up half price. Otherwise, the deal worked well. (Can anyone point me to a hard copy of the TRU ad for the free watch? Even though both the manager and the cashier thought the watch was supposed to be free, the manager refused to refund it, since I had no proof I was supposed to get it for free.)
Then I tried to purchase the 3/2 Leapfrog books. Because the original cashier had already balked at taking all the coupons, I explained to CS what I wanted to do: 3 books, $5/25 coupon, 2x$4/1 MQ. First, he told me that I could not stack coupons. I said sure I could, the $5/25 was a TRU coupon, and the others were MQs. Then we tried to tell me the fine print on the TRU said it could not be used in conjunction with other Qs. So, I made him read the fine print with me, where it says it cannot be used with other $/$ coupons or on prior purchases.
So then he said I could not use the Leapfrog coupons because they were one per purchase. I tried pointing out that this was one TRANSACTION, in which I was making 3 PURCHASES. Also pointed out that at grocery stores, purchase=item, not transaction.
AND THIS IS WHERE THE REAL BS STARTED….
He starts telling me how grocery stores could do such things, because they could order a single item of something, like a single can of soup, whereas TRU had to order entire cases of things, like the DVD’s, so they couldn’t take one coupon per item. That in order for him to take more than one coupon on a transaction, he would have to do an override, and that they were only allowed so many overrides in a week, or else they would be penalized. And that he knew this was correct because they were such a high-volume store, they deal with it all the time… So therefore it would actually be cheaper for me to purchase the books one at a time, and use a single coupon on each book, since I needed 3 books to bring the total to $25.
Wait? Did he just say using a coupon requires an override? And he saying they are a high volume store, but he couldn’t figure out if the watch was free or not, or that these books were b2g1
Lori- what a mess 🙁 The free watch is on the last page of the ad. Just go to ToysRus.com and click on weekly ad. Then go get em girl!