Why does the default ringtone override your custom ringtones?

[Windows Central Question]

My new Windows 8.1 phone, a Nokia Lumia 635 had only one issue, the default ringtone alerted all my calls, even though I had correctly added custom ringtones. I tried all of these suggestions: sound test your new ringtones, reset your phone, use Ringtone Maker 8.1, use WMA file type, not protected (DRM), less than 1MB, less than 40 seconds, must have in genre "ringtone", must be in phone's ringtone folder, another said to add custom ringtones to your SD card, remove the phone number dashes, and even delete your phone contact then add it in again! I stumbled upon the easy solution, noticed when my contacts had called me, it just displayed their number instead of their assigned name. Then I saw that these LOCAL numbers included the area code! When I made up my contact list there was no need to add the area code, right? Not so, with this Windows 8.1 phone. Hey, the area code wasn't needed for local contacts in my old Nokia 5230. Just make sure you have included the area code with each phone contact, and problem solved!