Multilevel list styles lose indents

I have seen this happen consistently in documents but am not sure if is one of those "by desgin" things.

I define a multi level bulleted list.  No problems so far; the list looks great and indents are where I want them.  Such as below.  I have used dashes instead of bullets for the purposes of posting to this board.  I have saved this format as a style in my document.

 -item 1
     -sub item 1.1
     -sub item 1.2
     -sub item 1.2
-item 2
     -sub item 2.1
     -sub item 2.2
             -sub item 2.2.1
             -sub item 2.2.2
             -sub item 2.2.3
     -sub item 2.2

Now, lets say I decide I would like to make a change to the multi-level list style.  Change the bullets, or even the indent spacing.  As soon as I touch this feature, it does save the new definition and update the style, any place in the document using this style loses all of its indenting.  The list goes left justified such as below.

 -item 1
-sub item 1.1
-sub item 1.2
-sub item 1.2
-item 2
-sub item 2.1
-sub item 2.2
-sub item 2.2.1
-sub item 2.2.2
-sub item 2.2.3
-sub item 2.2

Does anyone know how and if I can avoid this behaviour?

Thanks/