Exchange Active Sync account will not show up, lost all contacts

Question

HI, 
I know there have been various reports of the Active Sync not working properly, however my phone appears to have gone a step fuyrther since Lollipop upgrade..
I had to wipe the phone due to the appalling stability of Lollipop, so had to re-install my corporate email account.  When i first did using the setting retrieved from back up, it appeared to work, but then my contacts would randomly vanish, all of them, then they would come back a few hours later.  Well after a week of this, my phone also decided that emails would not sync.  So i've wiped the accoutn clean and "added a new account"
Hurray emails are back.. but no Contacts.  So i go into the "accounts" and the exchange account is missing, yet i'm still getting mails..  If i try to add the account, of course it realises it's  aduplicate, but there is no sign of the account, in the main settings page, going through email, contacts or calendar..
Sony and Google what have you done - this is my work phone, the IT department haven't got a clue so i'm stuck with a £300 brick which my company are not happy about and are trying to force an S3 compact on me...  PLease help..

Answer 1

Waheyy i've figured it out.  I'd just like to not thank the following people:
MY IT department
EE Mobile
Sony
The solution as it appears is consists of the following;
Office / Exchange issue
1. Wipe/ delete the device of any email accounts and, if present remove any OUtlook apps (this is just belt an braces) - restart handset.
2. Open the web version of Office365 - go to Mobile devices, and remove the mobile devices attached to the account.  Refresh this page and close down.
Android / Native Email, Contact and Calendar - issue
There is actualyl a guide within the sony website that explains this bit, but it does not highlight it is a fix to any possible solution;  though trying to find this page through the hundreds of web searches i carried out remains a no go.  However as coincidence would have it, i've found another blog with the same issue and fix!
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/baliles/archive/2014/10/22/sony-xperia-z3-with-office-365-contacts-amp-calen...
In essence, when you want to add an exchange account - DO NOT PICK Exchange, just go to add email as a non-exchange email account - i.e. enter email address and password - but then follow the manual set up process and select exchange.
At this point, you'll get the page where you enter domain info etc - -this bit is important!  Put full email addy + password, then in server , type outlook.office365.com, then OK- this will then give you all of the options for Email, Calendar, Contacts etc..
Somehthing somewhere gets confused, why this works at this point is unclear vs selecting exchange account from the very beginnig. Anyway - it works- i have my phone back..   Now for the annoying walkman issue!