Duplicate contacts showing

Hi all-

Has anyone seen somethnig like this? I have Plaxo installed in Outlook (2003) and when I sync my blackberry with my contacts (with a BES), I am seeing duplicate contacts in the address book.

Now, I have wiped the blackberry and reysnced, and these duplicates do not appear in the outlook address book, only when on the handheld. It seems the BB is breaking out one contact into multiple if, for example, the contact has a lot of information added (like a second title, info in the comments field).

I am not certain it is Plaxo causing this issue, but it's my only lead at this point...

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks very much,
Ben

Hi
I have a similar problem regarding duplicates, although my synchronisation is between Plaxo online, Outlook 2003 and my mobile phone. Every time I go through the laborious process of removing duplicates from my online address book, they reappear, and occasionally increase. It's actually getting rather scary .......

Does anyone know a way of removing duplicates forever?

Regards

Ato

[martalaura]

It seems many people have this issue. I posted the same issue on another thread. Here it is again. Hopefully, someone will give us an answer that will help make Plaxo as helpful as it is without making it so confusing in my address book when I see so many duplicates and I can't figure out which one is the most recent one with the most updated notes and information. It also takes up more memory than is necessary on my treo. What a PAIN!

Here is the horror issue we all seem to share:

I use plaxo regular, not premium. I am satisfied with this and do not want premium. However everytime I sync I get duplications of my entries on my outlook, on the Plaxo online, and on my palmOne Treo 650.

Regardless of the various ways I try to delete the duplicates I still get them back. I hope I do not have to delete them on each system individually.
Now I delete them on the treo and sync hoping it will delete them on the other systems but I get duplicates instead.

I also delete them online or I try to delete them on my outlook and I still get duplicates on all three plaxo, treo, and outlook. It seems to install the entries that are still on the other systems without recognizing that they are already on one of the three databanks. Regardless of how I delete them, I get duplicates.

Is there any way to avoid the duplicates outside of purchasing the premium package?

martalaura @ yahoo.com

I am close to simply closing this Plaxo account because I almost think it is configured to duplicate on purpose in order to have people sign up for the premium feature.

[martalaura]

Well, it seems that my suspisions may be correct. I was searching through this forum and found this:
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"Please read this before posting
Welcome to the Other products, services, and issues topic.

Need help with your account?
Having password issues, seeing duplicate entries, or experiencing other account-specific problems? Please access our Support Center or contact our Customer Care professionals for assistance.

Please note that -- while we appreciate and read every post in this forum -- we cannot guarantee any official replies. Our forum is designed to provide an avenue for members to help each other and also offer suggestions for future enhancements or new products"
-----
I read all the "help" under duplicate entries and basically they all lead to one thing: BUY Plaxo Premium. What a nasty little trick Plaxo is playing on all of us.

It looks like the duplication of entries is almost a program design so that Plaxo customers have to buy the Premium Package to eliminate the pesky duplicates. I guess that nothing is truly free.

This little trick is nasty because it is dishonest and reaks havoc on people who have to continously write notes in the address entries and do not want to have to continually have to check and see if they are deleting the least recent entry.

Shame on you Plaxo! I will be looking for a another way to save my data and I will let others know what I just figured out. :mad:

[privacyguy]

martalaura - I'm sorry you feel the problem you are experiencing is somehow deliberate by Plaxo as a ploy to get you to purchase our premium deduper. This is certainly not our intention nor the design of Plaxo.

As you might imagine, seemless multi-system, multi-platform, multi-application synchronization is a daunting challenging. For the large majority of Plaxo members, Plaxo works very well for them with little or no maintenance. But as bright and as talented as our engineers are, even we have to acknowledge we can not account for every variable that may existing within a user's environment or every action a user might take. Unfortuantely, this means the risk for duplication of data does exist with a plethora of root causes for the duplication problems.

As recommended in the "Read me first" post, if a user does experience duplication problem, they should check our support center for likely causes and remedies. For example, some 3rd party mobile sync applications have been known to cause duplciation issues when used in conjunction with Plaxo. But if our support center doesn't work for them, users always have the option of contacting one of our Customer Care professionals for direct assistance. Unlike many other services, Plaxo provides free customer service through chat and email. Premium customers also receive phone support and escalated handling.

I'm highly skeptical a company could build a successful business by taking advantage of it's users in the manner you believe Plaxo to be operating. But I respect your right to your own opinion based upon your own exeriences. Please note that if you no longer wish to maintain your Plaxo account, you may delete it at any time by going to: https://www.plaxo.com/delete_account.

Regards,

Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer

[mimmason]

To Plaxo: Why not simply provide all of us with this problem with a work around solution other than having to purchase the premium edition?

[privacyguy]

Are the dupes occurring only when used with Outlook or OutlookExpress? Or are you using some other sync software to sync your Outlook addressbook with a phone or other handheld device?

I'd recommend contacting support to isolate the source of the problem you are seeing. While Plaxo works in most typical user environments, we can not guarentee Plaxo will work in every environment with every possible 3rd party tool. But our support folks can help identify any potential issues, and see if there is anything we can do to fix or workaround those issues for the user.

As an aside - you can find a great collection of shareware and freeware Outlook tools located here: http://www.slipstick.com/addins/contacts.htm. Some of these tools can also help with duplicate entries, if you don't wish to utilize Plaxo's.