Need help with cleaning up contacts

Split from this thread.

Microsoft, I really need help with cleaning up contacts in Windows Live Mail.  I seem to be doing everything right, but it's not working.

In WLM, I clicked on Contacts and on Clean up Contacts.

This took me to People.live.com.

I clicked on Clean Up, and the duplicates were removed.  I checked this out carefully, and there's no question that the job was done.

I signed out of WLM, and signed in again.

The WLM contacts still had the duplicates.

I signed out of People.live.com and out of WLM.

I signed into WLM, and the contacts still had the duplicates.

I am at a loss.

What do I do now.