iPad will not open email attachments using webmail ?

Hi

We own a iPad 3, OS5.1.1 ( the iPad belongs to my wife ) therefore she has her own account set up using the iPad's email programme ( I do not have my email account on this iPad as we want to keep our accounts seperate)

When I login to my email account using my webmail I can not open any attachement wheather it be pdf.doc,txt ext etc ? when I select the document ( attachment ) nothing happens - if my wife has any pdf's attached to her emails using the iPad's email programme they open without any problems ?

I have spoken to my email provider as a webmail programme should be able to open attachments connected with an email - but they are not at all helpful they are suggesting that the problem is with the iPad which I am not at all convinced by unless I am advised other wise by anybody with a technical experience of this problem.

We have 3rd party apps such as PDF Reader and also iBooks which can read ePub files - can any body help with this - I am not talking about downloading files here, I am simply talking about the capacity to just open and read an attachment which I can not do with our iPad - we have plenty of memory and drive space, therefore I think it is a bug which might be due to a combination of the webmail programme and the iPad not working with each other - or simply something that is not apparent to me

Any help would be much appreciated

Many Thanks

Mavis