yah, it's not a character issue. the html tags get output for some reason. none of the other drupal mods do this. the first few lines of an order email for your viewing pleasure =)
<table width="95%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center" bgcolor="#006699" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica; font-size: small;">
<tr>
<td>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica; font-size: small;">
<tr valign="top">
<td>
<table width="100%" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica; font-size: small;">
<tr>
<td>i'm using the store email defaults. the html formatting code gets output regardless of the type of email account (pop3|http)
Joined: 10/25/2007