The "Merge" only occurs on the Phone, and no gMail contacts editing should occur due to the merge; it basically consists in the Phone Contacts App showing one single contact item per person, called, for example, John Smith, which includes John Smith's fields from GMail + John's Facebook data + John's Twitter Data + John's G+ data, etc. So, it is in essence a more effective way the phone has to show contacts to you.

Yes, the S3 merges some contacts automatically, but occasionally that needs to be done manually (some people spell their account name in Facebook differently, or use nicknames, etc. In twitter, that is even more frequently the case). In any case, once it is done, it is ok, until the problem occurs. As I said the really bad part of the problem is that, when it occurs, gMail contacts DO get edited, and, precisely, it is the phone field that gets erased.

Matt, ok, I did not think about it. I assumed "Contacts" App in the S3 was the stock Android Contact Management app. If the stock Android one is called "Peolpe", then I don't have it anywhere. Or, do I? Maybe that is not listed as a normal App? If I don't have the People App, can I get it and install it? Is it a normal App I can download and install?

Thank you!