Help Contact Sync Nightmare

[Bushido Brown]

Hi all, my current problem is the contact sync thing. Sometimes I open my phone contacts and it's empty, no contacts at all.
No problem... I have all my contacts backed up on SD card, simple, restore from SD card. all contacts back.
Next I log in to Gmail on my laptop and find every contact duplicated.
No problem... Gmail will merge duplicated contacts, Merge Contacts. sorted.
Open phone contacts... all gone again.
Am I missing something here, Am I a complete idiot?
Any help would be appreciated.
All I want is my actual email to sync, I'll take care of my contacts.

Thanks in Advance