What I need is to set the coordinates of one of my objects to 0-0-0 without actually moving it. Similar to Maya’s “freeze transformation” function.
I tried “Apply Location” but instead of doing what was expected, it sets the object’s origin location to it’s parent’s origin.
What do I do?
Shft+S set the cursor to center
select the object
(on the 3D window menu) Object->Transform->Origin to 3D cursor
If your object isn’t at the scene center, setting its coordinates to 0,0,0 “without actually moving it” makes no sense. It has to move to 0,0,0, which is the scene center. Apply Location sets the object’s location to 0,0,0, the scene center, which will move it unless it was already at that location to begin with (in which case there’s no reason to Apply Location). If the object has a parent, its transformations are relative to the parent, so it will go to the parent’s center instead of the scene’s center.
Oh yeah, I thought this sounded familiar. Hi Hadriscus. 
You very likely are looking for the “clear parent inverse” command. Or the clear parent and keep transformation". Or I have misunderstood, I don’t have Maya right now but I believe this corresponds for parented objects.