M.A.C. Berkeley — Local services in Berkeley

I literally cannot find enough good things to say about this place. Everyone I worked with has been so unfailingly kind, generous, helpful, and absolutely freaking brilliant. I've been struggling with a rats nest of computer problems for the past year--thanks, Apple Store YOU SUCK--and had finally given up on getting any of them straightened out. Push came to shove and I had no choice but to deal with it, but nothing was getting me to ever go back to the Apple Store…so I finally stumbled desperately into M.A.C. Juan immediately assured me that he could help, and right away I knew I was in the right place. I had to go back a few weeks later for another issue, and this time it was the wonderful Wai who took me under his wing and solved all my problems. He referred me to Matt for some specialized fixes, who heroically and patiently sat down with me for as long as it took to fix a myriad of entrenched problems, never once showing frustration with my lack of ability to understand the technology we were working on. Interestingly, because these guys continually managed to explain every step of the way in language that I, essentially a tech idiot, could understand, what had formerly been a dreaded chore actually became very interesting. I am amazed to say that I had fun. It was truly a pleasure to work with them all, and all I can say is don't waste your time going anywhere else. There is a reason these guys have been around for as long as they have: they are totally professional, genuinely good human beings, very creative at problem-solving, easy to be around, interesting to talk to, and hot damn do they know...

These guys are the best! A local shop where I can get great advice about my Mac from knowledgeable technicians who are allowed to wear whatever color shirts they want and work the kind of magic that the "geniuses" at the Apple store seems to be above.

Ok ok, so I might be a little biased. These guys just rescued me, big time. Here's what happened. My GF's computer had been acting strange for a few months so I said I'd take a look at it. I noticed that it seemed to be a bit out of date, but nothing a little OS upgrade might not be able to fix. Long story short, about half way through the installation of Snow Leopard I got scary messages telling me that the installation had failed and that the drive was unreadable. With no backup my worst fears came true: everything on her computer was seemingly lost, and I was to blame.

I took a deep breath and made an appointment with the Geniuses over at the Apple Store. Within 10 minutes they had run disk utility (which i had already tried) and proclaimed the drive dead. I was mortified. Surely the Genius' at Apple knew what they were doing, right? WRONG!

Without much to loose I took the drive over to M.A.C. They quoted me a price range that was way more reasonable than the data recovery services advertised online, they communicated some very clear and honest odds, and gave me a 4 day timeline. Sure enough, on day 4 I called and found out they had rescued all my data and helped me figure out how to get it back on my original machine, and all for under $100.

They just earned my business for life. Thanks M.A.C., and keep up...

I visited M.A.C. Berkeley a few weeks ago for a fan screw replacement in a 2012 Mac Mini. I contacted them on the phone, and they said they would be happy to look at it. I got dropped off in front of the store and waited about 5 minutes to enter. The person helping me said that it was a simple repair and charged me about $5 to replace the screw and some base plate. It took them about 5 minutes, and I was happy with the price.

After returning home, I plugged in the Mac Mini and discovered that it was overheating and crashing almost immediately. CPU temperatures were above 100°C with little to no use. I figured something had gone wrong with the repair. Sadly, I could not call them to figure it out since they had closed an hour before. After opening the computer up, I discovered that the person doing my repair had never plugged the fan back in, and I was able to fix it myself using a screwdriver.

Although I'm happy the issue was minor, I'm disappointed that what looked like an easy repair turned into a few hours of worrying and having to open the computer myself. I'm confident that M.A.C. Berkeley is a proficient repair store; however, I can't give them a 5* rating because of my experience. I've had many friends recommend them for quick repairs, and if I end up using them again, I will update this review with my newer thoughts.

As for all of my reviews, this review was neither paid for nor endorsed by M.A.C. Berkeley. All thoughts and...