Hi Rick,
Are you using one of the stock Auctiva templates and (if so) which one by name?
Can you build a description, switch to HTML mode, and copy - paste the HTML to www.practicewriter.com for assistance.
This problem could be the "*" template bug from your description, but knowing which template and seeing the code should help get to the root of the problem. I know they fixed some of them, like the "Flux" group, but I'm still seeing some with the bug, like "Bratty" that has the same style bug.
Danno