Private message problem

This may have already been brought up, so I apologize if it has. When sending a private message to someone, if you use quotations or parenthesis and such in your text, when the person you are sending to receives it the quotes or parenthesis do not show up, but there are all these shapes and numbers in its place and it can make it very hard to read the message. I know nothing about computers so I know there is probabaly some technical term for this, but I do not know it.

This problem doesnt happen when posting a poem or even in the chat room, I have only noticed it with the private messages.

Thanks,

-Spence