Npm package version Caret not working

In devDependencies the caret is not working. When clear node_modules and reinstalling the listed installed version says the package w/o caret (ex 0.2.4). Even when we know there is a newer version npm should match

  "devDependencies": {
   ...
     "ember-frost-tabs": "^0.2.4",
   ...}

Also doing ember install of a package doesn't update the package version in package.json

Using "0.x.x" works. But our script does an ember install of new packages needed, and I rather not have to parse package.json and change it to use x's rather than a caret.