problematic MIME email messages

[Sarah Hood]

Dear fellow Web4libbers:

My coworker, who handles all of our periodicals work, keeps getting these emails sent to us by our periodicals jobber (EBSCO) with the below message re: MIME format: 


"This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible."

My guess is that the reason they have to send it in MIME format is because much of the material is graphical in nature. But unfortunately, we do not have any control over how our college's email reader is set up * whether or not it's set up to read MIME (non-ASCII) messages. 

This is a real problem because she's not getting the vital information she needs from these people due to the fact that she can't read half the stuff they send. They are the only people with whom we have this problem, so on the one hand it leads me to believe the problem is on their end but on the other hand maybe it's because our email reader isn't set up to read these types of messages.  

She has sent these messages back to them, asking them to please send her something she can read. So far, they have less than helpful in resolving the problem. Any suggestions? Has anyone had a similar problem?  

Thanks, 
Sarah


Sarah Hood
User Services Librarian/Webmaster
J. Drake Edens Library
Columbia College
(803) 786-3703
(803) 786-3570