Sync difficulties with contacts

Question

I have been having a bit of a confusing time with my contacts. 
* I use a Pearl 9105 running OS6.0 bundle 1479 (v6.0 .0.380, Platform 6.6.0.85) *
To begin with I am a relatively new to the BB interface, so I guess some troubles with adjustment are inevitable, but I'm having difficulty understanding how the contact syncing works.
When I was setting up the phone I was prompted to copy across the contacts that had been stored in the sim card from my old phone. This I did, but the mapping appears to have been slightly different to that used in BlackBerry devices, and consequently many of the names are abbreviated or have strange punctuation marks added to them, such as "-- Texti;/H". A lot of the contacts were also missing after this initial import and it was clear I needed another solution otherwise I'd be manually reentering all my contacts one-by-one. Not an option.
For a while I had no idea how I was going to do this. I had to get my contacts from my old phone, a Sony Ericsson, across to my BlackBerry. Eventually I figured out a way using a third-party app called MyPhone Explorer.
The process was a little bit involved but went as follows: First I synced up my old phone to MyPhone Explorer and exported my contacts to an Excel file. This I was able to open in Excel and save in *.csv format.
Note: There is an option in Gmail to import *.csv files into the Gmail contacts, which I tried, but the mapping was wrong and no names showed up.
So, from there instead I imported the contacts .csv file into Microsoft Outlook using the import csv file option. Using this method there are options that enable you to adjust the mapping during the import. In laymen terms, this means the names in the .csv file get connected to the name field in Outlook's contacts, the work phone number to the work phone field, etc etc.
Once the mapping is set up correctly, you can import the contacts into Outlook and they should make sense.
Outlook is also able to export a (properly mapped) *.csv file. Do this, and then import the second .csv file into your Gmail contacts. The fields should be mapped correctly and everything should look right. 
I know that BlackBerry handhelds are able to sync their contacts with contacts in Gmail accounts (among others). I have three email accounts linked to my BB: One is primarily for business, one is my personal email and the other is an old account that I rarely use. Of the three, the contacts of the first two are supposed to be synced but this is where things are getting me confused.
The personal email account now contains basically all of my contacts -- 890 in all, but eventhough it's supposed to be synced to my BlackBerry, the BB contacts folder only shows around 400 contacts in it. This was the number I had during the initial import when I first connected the account, which was before I had imported my phone contacts via Outlook using the method mentioned above.
So, basically, I'm wondering why these contacts aren't all showing up now. It seems that the sync function on my BB has either stopped working, or happens only once in a (long) while. Is there any information on this? I have had a look around but can't see an answer posted elsewhere.
Another question is why are there different sync options available for the contacts from accounts I have connected?
(The account I use for work has a "wireless synchronization option", but this account only has one or two contacts I need, and is a shared, so I can't use it for all my personal contacts.)
Meanwhile, my personal account, which contains all my contacts and which I want to re-sync, does not seem to have the wireless synchronization option and I wish it did. In the contact list properties field all that is shown is the number of contacts from this email account (483) -- no other options available it seems.
My next question concerns merging contacts. OK, so have imported multiple contacts folders / address books from different email accounts and my sim card into my BlackBerry, some of which are out of date. A useful feature available in Gmail allows users to "merge" two separately listed contacts into one, for example where two records have been created for one person using two email addresses or two phone numbers. So, if I have merged a bunch of the contacts I imported into Gmail earlier and now I wish to re-sync this with my phone, what happens? Does the BB get rid of the redundant entries that have been amalgamated into single listings? (something tells me no, but it's worth asking).   
Does it replace the BB entries with the Gmail entries? And does it delete entries on the BB that are not found in the Gmail account? Which account acts as the guide and which follows?
If I have made adjustments to my contacts in the BB and then sync this to the Gmail contacts, do these changes a;sp affect my Gmail contacts?
Am I missing something?
Fergus

Answer 1

On the same page it also says Facebook integration is coming this fall. We are all waiting.