PS3 BF3 server renewed

Just to let you know that the BF3 server has been renewed...

...and we now have two servers.

Server renewal is due on 3rd October. As that's only 5 days away, I decided to get it sorted today. I logged into the game, went to My Servers and purchased 90 day server rental which clearly states that it is for renewing existing servers as well as renting new ones. I read all of the details and had them double-checked by Halo to make sure I was correct in doing this. So, I make the purchase and lo and behold, the server isn't renewed but instead I have a new second server.

Not very happy at this, I phone EA and spend half an hour on the phone (most of it waiting to speak to someone). Finally when I get through, the adviser goes off to check with someone who has dealt with this before about what can be done. He came back to say that nothing can be done - they are not able to cancel the new server nor transfer the purchased 90 days onto the old server. The adviser tried to explain that the server is identical in functionality etc but I stopped him as I know all that. That's not the point, I want my existing one to to continue (which it seems it can't) and more importantly I would be losing 5 days out of this due to the new server starting today rather than the renewal starting when the current one expires. Although there was nothing he could do about transferring the 90 days across, he has added an additional 7 days onto the new server to make up for the lost 5 days and inconvenience caused. I then asked him why my server hadn't renewed and he didn't know. We'd been checking on EA's website whilst this conversation went on and in their FAQs is says that you must renew within 72 hours of the expiry of your server and doing so earlier than this will mean you rent a new one instead. I pointed this out to him and asked him to urgently pass this information on so that the server rental screen on the PS3 clearly displays this information as it definitely isn't there.

So, for the next few days we have two servers. The new server is running the AK+standard+Karkand maps rotation I created whilst the original one is running the BF3 Classic maps. I've set it to this because within minutes of the new server being set up, it had 21 players, yet once I changed it to AK it emptied. So Classic Maps may get us some advertising on the old server.

Please search for the new server and favourite it because the old one will disappear next week.

I've copied all of the map rotations which you can see in the BF3 Server Rotations thread across to the new server, along with all of us as VIPs. I've also made those who contributed to the server admins on both.

Admins - you now have the power to change settings, rotations etc. If you edit a rotation, please do post to let us all know in the BF3 Server Rotations thread and so that the spreadsheet of rotations can be updated (which I found very useful when copying the information to the new server). You also have the power to kick and ban people! Please use this wisely and only where necessary and remember, it's my name in the server owner box so I'll get the complaints if you turn out like the guy in the clip below.