Shoppers frequently ask me why their grocery and drugstores will not accept the coupons printed from grocery coupon Web sites.

Although most stores do accept printed coupons, some shoppers still experience the frustration of printing coupons, putting the coupon items in their cart, having them rung up and then having the coupons refused by the cashier.

At that point, shoppers have to decide whether or not to dig the items out of their packed shopping bags to be taken off the order, or to simply pay full price. Either option is an inconvenience, so we continue to work on solving this issue. We know that vocal shoppers can help influence grocery store policies, and there are logical steps we can take to help convince our local stores' management to reconsider their policies if they do not accept printed coupons.

I recently had a conversation with a coupon industry spokesperson on this topic and he suggested a very practical approach to take with this issue. Matthew Tilley of Couponinfonow.com told me that most stores have national corporate policies that state they do accept legitimate printed grocery coupons that meet stated requirements. However, some of their stores may still refuse to accept these legitimate coupons. Most likely, store personnel may not be sure how to tell whether a printed coupon is counterfeit or not, so they refuse to accept any home-printed coupons at all.

Understandably, stores have concerns about the potential risk of accepting counterfeit grocery coupons.

In 2003, some shoppers redeemed several counterfeit coupons at stores before stores realized they were counterfeit, costing the stores thousands of dollars. However, the legitimate printable coupon Web sites now have security measures in place to help prevent potential abuse or fraud.

What should you do if your store won't accept your printed coupons? Tilley suggests that shoppers write or e-mail the customer service contacts for their stores, which are easily found on the stores' Web sites. Ask for a written statement of the stores' printable coupon policy. Assuming it is positive, print that statement and show it to your stores' managers to reinforce their own companies' policies.

I took Tilley's advice and e-mailed Wal-Mart headquarters since I frequently hear from site users that Wal-Mart will not accept their printed grocery coupons. I was pleased to receive this positive response. This is the exact e-mail I received from Wal-Mart's customer service department answering the question I posed, "What is your policy regarding the acceptance of coupons printed from a home computer?"

"Wal-Mart Stores can accept coupons that are available on the Internet for customers to print from their home computers. The following are guidelines for the stores for accepting Internet coupons:

- The coupon should be legible and say 'Manufacturer Coupon.' There should be a valid remit address for the manufacturer, to ensure the coupon can be processed for payment.

- The coupon should have a scan-able bar code.

- The coupon should have an expiration date.

- The coupon cannot be a photocopy.

- The limit is one coupon per item, per Customer.

- A Salaried Manager can refuse to accept a coupon if it does not meet any or all of these guidelines."

Because the coupons printed from the legitimate Web sites such as coolsavings.com, eversave.com, smartSource.com, boodle.com and coupons.com all meet these requirements, shoppers should feel confident approaching their Wal-Mart store manager with their coupons and this column in hand. To make it easiest for the store manager to see that the coupons are from legitimate Web sites, do not cut the coupon out from the piece of paper it prints on. Keep the entire page intact so the manager can see the Web site address at the top or bottom of the page. Good luck!

Stephanie Nelson shares her savings tips as a regular contributor on ABC News' "Good Morning America."

You can find more of her savings tips in her book "The Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom" and on her website at www.couponmom.com. She can be reached at shoppingmom@unitedmedia.com.