I have a duplicate detection rule to check for contacts with the same last name and the same first two letters of the first name, case insensitive. I have checked the box to exclude inactive matching records and I have done no direct database manipulation.
To test the duplicate detection, I created a contact with my name and saved it. I then created a lead with the same last name and Mike instead of Michael for the first name. When I try to qualify that lead and create a contact from it I get a dialog titled Duplicates Detected, but in the bottom where the found duplicates should be it says “Potential duplicate records: None”.
This article ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2693711 ) is the only thing I’ve found that seems to address the issue, but it doesn’t solve my problem.
Edited to add: I discovered that if I trigger the duplicate detection rule by directly creating a new Contact as opposed to qualifying a Lead, it works correctly and it shows the matched possible duplicates. I’d still like to get it working when qualifying a Lead, however.
Sounds buggy to me, it really should show the user which record(s) are clashing.
However, I would come at the problem a different way – create a duplicate detection rule on Leads that look for matches against last name and first name on Contacts, so this would warn the user much earlier that there might be a conflict. E-mail address would always be a good indicator too, although it depends on your processes as to whether you would have captured that information at this early stage.
(likewise if you do B2B you may want to dupe check Leads against Accounts by company name)
Why waste all that time filling out details on a Lead only to find that it was already in the system as a qualified contact or account when you try to qualify it?