Time to open the mailbag at On Your Side and answer some of the questions that pile up.

Sharon Hill enjoys entering contests online but she says many times, even when contests are for Canadian entries only, she can't enter because she lives in Quebec.

"Why can we not just sign up for all of them?" asked HIll.

The short answer is it is the government's fault.

Lawyer Eloise Gratton, technology counsel for McMillan, says Quebec has a special legal framework that applies to lotteries and contests.

"We have the Regie des Alcools des courses et des jeux that have some type of power over a lot of issues including gambling and publicity contests," said Gratton.

"Anytime there's a contest there's a whole procedure that needs to be followed," including the timing of the contest, bureaucratic approval, and fees.

At the end of the day some companies would rather avoid complications and costs, including translation, of dealing with the Regie.

Gratton also points out that some people say the law is outdated, and while it initially protected consumers there are many who feel that in the Internet age, when everyone can voice their opinion and dissatisfaction online, that other competition and criminal laws that govern publicity contests would suffice.

 

PayPal

David Orr likes to shop online and often pays with PayPal, but he says as a Canadian he's been charged more for those items than if he paid in U.S. funds.

"Why is it that PayPal is charging us more when the Canadian dollar is above par to the U.S. dollar?" asked Orr.

PayPal's response:

"PayPal's exchange rates are the market rates set by our banking partners and are updated regularly. in addition to the exchange rate, PayPal also charges a 2.5% currency conversion fee to exchange funds from one currency to another. The resulting exchange rate charged by PayPal is similar, or in some cases less than the exchange rate Canadians would be charged if they shopped in the United States using a Canadian credit card".

 

Update on wheelchair-adapted car

The first OYS story of the season was about Jolanta Stansinska and her fight with Quebec's Automobile Insurance Board to have her brand new van --which she won-- adapted so that her son Jakub could get in and from the side rather than the back of the vehicle.

She'd taken on the SAAQ to try to get her the more expensive wheelchair adaptation.

In the end Stansinska settled out of court with the board, but it still wasn't enough to cover the full amount for the side conversion.

She says she still needs about $2000 and she's hoping to raise it through donations to an account at a Polish Credit Union.

Meantime her van sits idle in the parking lot of a West Island car dealership.