What happened to my contacts?

[joyswilleod]

I used backup assistant to save my contacts to the web.  When I got a new iphone 5c, I successfully downloaded them to the phone, and called many of them.  Yesterday, all my phone contacts were gone, but when I went to manage my contacts, the site said that the backup assistant was not an available option for me.  Even then, the contacts were still on the website.  Today they are not.  What happened to them, and how in the world can I get them back?  I had almost 250 of them!

[nicholasbranson]

On the website, where you would normally view your contacts, there should be a trash icon. I would check in there to see if you can restore them. I've seen many times they end up there for some reason.