Problem wth sales overriding specials

Recently upgraded from 1.2.5d to 1.3.01, last week

I have a manufacturer who had several specials running, to expire months from now. Had a sale scheduled to begin today on her items, set to override specials. In the cart, these items were showing the original price crossed out, the specials price crossed out, and then the sale price. The problem with this is that the special was a larger discount than the sale, so it looks like the customer's getting screwed.

I tried to delete the specials, and it seemed like they had deleted, no errors, but then when I searched for them again, they were still there, running. I ended up fixing it by setting the expiration date on the specials to yesterday.

So--is there a way for the overridden special to not show crossed out? Optimally, it wouldn't show at all. I've attached a screenshot of what it looked like in the cart. (I screwed up the screenshot, it doesn't show one that was less as a special, the sale was lower on this one)
Also--is there a reason they didn't delete when I deleted them? Glitch?

Or, is this something that was fixed in the new release that came out last week? Kicking myself in the butt for not waiting a couple days to upgrade.

I have a similar problem ... trying to get back my regular prices after deleting and setting the sale end date to the sale start date. Can't get back where I started.

Hope my problem is close enough and someone will have the answer.

Oregon Sue