I have a lot of contacts like restaurants, or company tech support numbers (Verizon, Go Daddy, etc) where the contact has no first name or last name. When importing my CSV file I get an error about missing information - it says all contacts must have EITHER first name, last name OR company.
After the import is completed none of the contacts with only a company name appear in my contact list.
Is the error message wrong? Is something special required for importing contacts that have only a company name?
After the import is completed none of the contacts with only a company name appear in my contact list.
Is the error message wrong? Is something special required for importing contacts that have only a company name?
Robert Stoeber, Champion
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1,908 Points
- frustrated with ringcentral
Posted 4 years ago
Mike, Official Rep
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94,158 Points
Robert Stoeber, Champion
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1,908 Points
Really? Are you sure the / is not allowed? That appears in every website address and many of my contacts have a website. Also, when I do a normal export from Google Contacts there is a column heading called TTY/TDD and I have been importing that with no problems.
Also, are you saying the double quote mark is not allowed in a CSV file? That appears in every standard CSV file around fields that contain embedded commas.
Anyway, I never remove either of those and my file imports absolutely correctly. There are no missing entries or missing data on any of the imported entries so I don't think those "special characters" are causing my problem.
What I'm seeing is very, very consistent - every contact that is like a restaurant or another business where I only have the company name, phone and sometimes the address, will not import. If I put an x in either the first name or last name of the restaurants they will be imported.
Also, are you saying the double quote mark is not allowed in a CSV file? That appears in every standard CSV file around fields that contain embedded commas.
Anyway, I never remove either of those and my file imports absolutely correctly. There are no missing entries or missing data on any of the imported entries so I don't think those "special characters" are causing my problem.
What I'm seeing is very, very consistent - every contact that is like a restaurant or another business where I only have the company name, phone and sometimes the address, will not import. If I put an x in either the first name or last name of the restaurants they will be imported.
Mike, Official Rep
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93,808 Points
Sorry. I should have been more specific.
See: Importing Personal contacts in your RingCentral account
NOTE: Import will fail if a contact name on your list has the following symbols: <, >, /, ". Please remove these four prohibited symbols from the contact names,
See: Importing Personal contacts in your RingCentral account
(Edited)
Robert Stoeber, Champion
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1,908 Points
My contact names and company names contain no special characters.
Again, the problem is specifically with importing contacts that have blank first and last names. No contacts with only a company name will import. Everything else is working properly.
So either your documentation is wrong, or your contact import code is not working.
Again, the problem is specifically with importing contacts that have blank first and last names. No contacts with only a company name will import. Everything else is working properly.
So either your documentation is wrong, or your contact import code is not working.
Kim, Alum
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43,734 Points
Robert- thank you for the additional information. Do you have a case number we can follow up with? If not, please open a case and let us know the case number.
Robert Stoeber, Champion
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1,908 Points
Case # 04574272
I was promised a response in 24 hours. It has now been 4 DAYS with no update.
I was promised a response in 24 hours. It has now been 4 DAYS with no update.
Mike, Official Rep
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93,808 Points
Hello Robert, I see from your case notes an agent tried to contact you. Can you update the case with notes if there's a window of time or particular number they can try and reach you at?
Robert Stoeber, Champion
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1,908 Points
OK, after several hours of experimenting with various CSV file formats and options, I think I have discovered the problem. It's not that my records are being skipped during the import.
The situation is that when importing records, RingCentral thinks that all records with a blank first and last name are duplicates. In other words, every record that has only a company name will overwrite the previous record that only had a company name.
This behavior, in my humble opinion, is incorrect since the company names are different so the record clearly isn't a duplicate.
The workaround is to select the option that says "Keep current existing record and add new record imported from import file" but that could introduce actual duplicates, so I prefer importing with the option "Overwrite existing record with the new record."
I will post this under a separate thread as well so that it's easier to find.
The situation is that when importing records, RingCentral thinks that all records with a blank first and last name are duplicates. In other words, every record that has only a company name will overwrite the previous record that only had a company name.
This behavior, in my humble opinion, is incorrect since the company names are different so the record clearly isn't a duplicate.
The workaround is to select the option that says "Keep current existing record and add new record imported from import file" but that could introduce actual duplicates, so I prefer importing with the option "Overwrite existing record with the new record."
I will post this under a separate thread as well so that it's easier to find.
Kim, Alum
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43,854 Points
@Robert - Thank you for the additional information, and for creating an Idea request for the product team to look at and review for the future.
(Edited)
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2,750 Points
I have had to handle duplicates by creating a master contact sheet from all of our users' inputs, then removing duplicates in excel before importing them to RC. Very labor intensive.
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80 Points
Why can't we just use an API to link from a CRM or other database and create these new records in an automated manner?
