cedarperra said:When I called the store they said they have a Thomas event going on next weekend (not tomorrow) and that it may be for then. She (the store manager) said she doesn't remember having any thomas things in stock to give away. FYI. Funny how a few of you are defending this coupon and haven't even bothered trying it yet. We will see.

a) You NEVER call the store!!! That just alerts them and will likely kill it.
b) You are correct - The event is on June 28th. Details (scroll down) However no mentioning of any thing free other than "savings"
c) The coupon is legal in that it's hosted by TRU. However, it could have been targeted and hence not for everyone's consumption

I'm on the Toys R Us email newsletter. I received this in the newsletter this past week.

So it's at least valid in California Bay Area, since that's where I'm signed up for the newsletter.

The reason you never call (in general) is the honesty of the employees, who will print out the coupons buy up a ton of the product and sell on eBay..... and you will never get a strait answer from a minimum wage lackey anyway.

cedarperra said:rsuaver said:cedarperra said:When I called the store they said they have a Thomas event going on next weekend (not tomorrow) and that it may be for then. She (the store manager) said she doesn't remember having any thomas things in stock to give away. FYI. Funny how a few of you are defending this coupon and haven't even bothered trying it yet. We will see.

a) You NEVER call the store!!! That just alerts them and will likely kill it.
b) You are correct - The event is on June 28th. Details (scroll down) However no mentioning of any thing free other than "savings"
c) The coupon is legal in that it's hosted by TRU. However, it could have been targeted and hence not for everyone's consumption

Regarding a). Did I miss something? If this was meant for a specific audience then why would I never call the store? If it is legit but wasn't intended for all then it would be dishonest to try to get the item. Sorry you don't see it that way. This is a deal site not a "how do we loophole TRU" and get something free. I recall a so called "deal" last year that applauded people for ripping open a package of light bulbs to get a free coupon. Some of which were arrested for their dishonesty.

I just came back from the store. There were three of us, we all got different wooden "Thomas" trains.
I got Duck, one guy got Oliver, and the third guy got a Sir Topom Hat car.

So, they don't have to be the Thomas Engine. But I believe they need to be individual Thomas Brand cars of the wooden variety.

All we had to pay for was the tax.

The coupon worked for me, thanks OP!

My store in Rachacha, NY, had several for $12.99 or less. Went in at 11AM. I only went through the line with one train and no other purchase. I got some new train called "Freddie" that was $10.99 originally. The checkout girl tried to give it to me for free, because it was less than $12.99, however, the front desk told her she had to charge tax, so this train only cost me 88-cents for tax!

Just came back from a store in MN. Had no problems with the cashier taking the coupon. I got a diecast train that was priced at 9.99. Walked out just paying the tax which was i beleive 0.63 cents. Great deal.

No problem using coupon in Falls Church VA. Bought 3 different ones priced <= $12.99

Zanaba said:"Only original coupons accepted." ...yet you can print them online??? It does appear to be a valid Toys R Us website and only allows one chance to print just like their normal printable coupons. The "only originals" statement just seems to give each location an "out" to not accept the coupon. I'm guessing it will be a hit and miss as to whether they will accept the coupon and they will have a valid argument to not accept it. Good luck. It's worth a shot. It doesn't claim to be for a specific local promotion, on the coupon or the page it prints on.

I thought that was funny too, how to have an original, internet coupon. I thought it might have a unique barcode, like Blockbuster(i.e. can't use the same coupon after it's been scanned), but it seems several people have used it. I'll give it a try this weekend and hope that it works(if any are still in stock after some greedy FW'ers hit the stores today ).

Will give this a try in one of the MA stores tomorrow AM. Thanks OP!

Thanks for the link. My Toys-R-Us checkout person had to "override their system” to accept the coupon, but they did, and were quite nice about it. The coupon's clearly not for just one item - there were literally 2 aisles full of "Thomas Train" items (I had no idea it was this big) and I saw others using the same coupon to buy items other than mine. In fact, at least one of them had the same coupon with the same exact UPG code.

Mine was slightly under $12.99, and they did charge me sales tax. I'm not sure if they charged me sales tax because they had to override their system and had no way to complete the transaction without doing so, or whether the charge for sales tax would have happened anyway. (According to earlier posts, it looks like only 1 person so far was able to avoid sales tax in some way. Has anyone else had luck in avoiding paying even the sales tax?)

By the way, at checkout they did ask me for a phone number, which I gave. Perhaps their system relates the phone number given by the customer with the coupon's UPG, to block this coupon from being used again with the same (user-supplier) phone number? Or perhaps Toys-R-Us always asks for customer phone numbers - I don't shop there regularly enough to know.