MacHaus – The Alaska “Apple Store”
8 Jul
Alaska’s best Apple store is MacHaus. They have three locations statewide in Anchorage, Wasilla and Fairbanks. Locally owned and operated, MacHaus provides Apple Specialist repair services and sells all the Apple and Mac products with the exception of the iPhone. Visit their site: www.machaus.net
Original post | July 8, 2008
MacHaus is currently celebrating their “Grand Opening” event for their new store recently opened in Anchorage, Alaska. MacHaus is a locally owned and operated Apple sales and authorized service center with three locations around the State. I recently met with the owner, Ben Schaafsma to get the scoop on MacHaus and learn a little more about what they’re all about.
I’ll save you the history lesson and give the short version: MacHaus started in the Valley (Wasilla, Alaska) about five years ago and two years ago set up shop in Fairbanks, Alaska. Ben is expanding now into Anchorage with a nice looking shop located just off Northern Lights across the street from REI, next to Plato’s Closet in the old Sunshine Plaza building.
Having visited the other options for buying a Mac in Alaska, I can say that the MacHaus environment, vibe and apparent knowledge of Apple products is vastly superior to the big box solutions or the “other” Apple shop in town. Alaska’s always struggled to be on par with L48 options, but MacHaus really raises the bar. Kudos.
MacHaus has six Apple Certified technicians statewide and provides superb support and service beyond the sale. While not an exact replica of the official Apple Store, MacHaus has a nice layout and similar feel to the “real thing”. They appear to have a great inventory of everything from the Macbook to the MacPro and all the accessories you might need.
The only missing element from the unofficial Apple Store for Alaska, is the obviously absent iPhone. AT&T and Apple are very controlling and tight on the iPhone, so even authorized Apple shops can’t get their hands on them! You’ll also notice that MacHaus does not repair iPods on location, but can ship them out to Apple for factory service or warranty repairs.
Right now they’re giving away a Macbook Air, so stop by MacHaus in Anchorage to enter to win!
1231 West Northern Lights Blvd.
Anchorage, Alaska
Web: http://www.machaus.net/
Phone: (907) 522-4622
Sweet! I’m excited to go into the new store; I actually have not been inside any of them.
In many ways, I am glad we don’t have an Apple store; I love supporting the locals. Even with my love for the local shops, it was always unnerving to go into the the Alaska Mac Store and avoided doing so on numerous occasions. I have high hopes for Mac Haus!
The people at the alaska mac store are not good. I think they browsed through my personal data, and then made uncomfortable comments to me about things I’d written in personal letters saved in my documents folder. I’m hoping the people in the Mac Haus know how to respectfully treat their customers with the professionalism one would expect from a top tier computer dealership.
Boy, are we glad you’re opening. Those other guys…well….don’t wanna be rude (like they are) or make comments (like they do) but we want to be above such things, right? Hat’s off to you guys. We’ll definitely be stopping by. And I’m speaking from experience. Would you make a 47 year old lady cry in your store when asking for some help, or smirk under your breath and imply that you..”better go take some classes somewhere, maybe you’ll learn something” : )
Great comments. Yes, MacHaus has been awesome! It’s really nice to have an Apple computer specialist close to home. I have a great story about how the guys at Machaus in Anchorage totally saved the day on a new Macbook that shipped new w/ some problems. I’ll save that for a new blog post.
worst store in the history of mac…don’t go there. They won’t honor their own return policies at all. I spent over 5k there over the course of a few months and had issues with performance as well as over all quality of the products. When trying to return the products or exchange for other upgraded models they rejected their own return policy!!! Can you believe that? I was simply told we can’t sell this anymore. Products were in great condition, and with in the allowed time frame for return and they still said no
Great looking store. I found out about you on Alaska HDTV.
Dont trust these guys..they dont have the skills needed to run this business.
Tell me more about your reasoning for “not having the skills”
Machaus of Fairbanks is terrible. I have bought 3 computers there and they won’t lift a finger to help me with any thing without charging me 65 dollars. I have a mac book 13″ and the screen broke. I brought it in to see what my options were and it took them a week to tell me that my screen is broke and charged me 65 dollars for stating the obvious and said they wanted $500 to fix it. so it forced me to buy the $100 part and do it my self. It is far from the quality that an Authorized Mac store would offer you. It is just my opion but I recomend dealing with apple direct than going to these guys.