My main Home Computer has been a late 2013 27" iMac, bought in 2015 & fitted with a Samsung 2TB SSD in 2018. A 27" Cinema Display attached as a second screen This setup has been working great all these years, though each new version of MacOS seemed to slow it a teensy bit more each time. Then Catalina became the last MacOS it could run, which I could live with until Microsoft Office 360 also dropped support for Catalina.
Tried OpenCore Legacy Patcher to get at least to Big Sur, & it mostly worked fine except for some wierd things with Contacts & Calendar (Linked .iCloud & Gmail contacts becoming unlinked, & unlinking again after being relinked, Lists being doubled up, Birthdays in Calendar doubling & tripling).
In the end I bit the bullet & got a Mac mini M2 on a 0% payment schedule. Plan was, Cinema Display Main Monitor, & use Duet to make the iMac the Second Monitor. So I signed up, installed, did all the right things, but neither extend nor mirror worked in either direction. Duet offer seven Days trial, cancel any time, before your card gets charged, so time enough to get help & see if it worked good for me. Or so I thought!
So I wrote to support - automated message saying they’d reply within 24 hours.
24 hours later, nothing, so I wrote again - same auto message, & 24 hours later still nothing.
Meanwhile I completely uninstalled the apps, restart, restart, reinstall very carefully following the instructions, but still nothing. Getting frustrated I sent off several emails to them, but still no replies.
February 2nd I find there is an update for the app for Intel Macs. Install it & hey presto it worked! (Of course, the Auto-update denied there was a newer version so I had to - you guessed it - uninstall & reinstall to get it). Tried it out for a Day but it was laggy (And we have very good WiFi within our House - our Asus Router is in the same room I am & rock solid). The laggy response was probably due to the age of the iMac so I do not put any fault on Duet for that.
February 3rd I give up, canceled the subscription, told them why I cancelled, got confirmation, & promptly popped the iMac on Ebay & bought a new Monitor.
February 4th I get a reply from one of their team apologising for the late reply & suggesting what I should try even though I wrote them that I got it working, it wasn’t very good, & I had given up & cancelled.
This morning I got a message from my online Bank that my account had been charged for the Subscription - the cancelled one. Unfortunately, my Bank does not have a “reject” button, so I first have to get Duet to reply & if they don’t only then can I start the process to get the money back.
So, a word of warning to all - I believe Duet is a very good product if you have two quite modern Macs or a modern iPhone or iPad, but if you try to mix old & new & it doesn’t work, don’t expect any help from them!
Ok, rant over - I feel better now
Yes, I had no control at all. Thanks for this link, so now I know this is now the standard. I now also have the Cinema Display up for sale on Ebay, & switching to 2 x Lenovo 27" Monitors. I will certainly look at Lunar, as the Monitor that already arrived is only adjustable via the screen’s own controls - I miss the brightness control on the keyboard working.
A comment on the purchase process. Your bank problem is why I buy virtually everything on a credit card (not a debit card). Whenever I’ve had to contest a charge in the past, the credit card company holds the charge until the dispute is resolved. I’ve never had to pay, then recover money, from a bad charge. This process has worked over the years with all three of the major credit card companies—Visa, MasterCard and Discover.
Totally agree. Unfortunately the online Bank I use for my Business does not have this ability. They don’t offer a credit card but everything is in English, & living in Germany this helps dealing with financial matters greatly. At the end of the day, signing up for a free trial with a long established & much accepted Company that offers a cancel any time policy should not be a problem, but despite several emails I am still waiting a reply. Tomorrow I go telephone number seeking (On their website, all contacts are email only).
Can you get a credit card from some other bank and leave the rest of your accounts where they are? There can’t be only one English-speaking bank in Germany.
Germany has always been very skeptical towards credit cards.
To this day, despite it being illegal, lots of German merchants will charge people extra for using them. German courts have ruled several times this is illegal (at least for Visa/Mastercard, IIRC there are exceptions for Diner’s and AmEx), yet it still goes on.
I have other credit cards, but because of the way paying taxes as a Freelancer in Germany works, it is way, way better to do all Business transactions through a dedicated Business Bank Account, and this online Bank is designed for Freelance / Small Business people. As I was fully expecting Duet to work seamlessly for me after reading only positive reviews on many sites, I didn’t worry at the time. Plus, I thought there would be a “refuse this charge” button on the website, as that is the norm, so I was surprised when there wasn’t - that’s on me. But I must say I am disappointed that a Company like Duet that so many people speak well about has such terrible Customer support - still no reply except to my very first email.
Well, it took several goes, but Duet finally “found” my payment, cancelled my order & refunded the money. Still took about eight emails back & forth but it’s done!
