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The Behind-the-Scenes Story of Our Website Overhaul
Boat Safe Chicago Website/photo courtesy of Boat Safe Chicago
For a small business, a website is far more than just a digital brochure—it’s the front door, the booking counter, and the first impression. At Boat Safe Chicago, our basic website had served its purpose for several years. We built it ourselves using GoDaddy, and while it got us off the ground, customers told us booking wasn’t as smooth as it needed to be.
Navigating the site to book a boat charter, schedule training, learn about captain school, or arrange boat relocations wasn’t simple. We knew our offerings were top-tier, but our digital front door needed a serious upgrade.
The Sales Pitch: “A Seamless Transition”
Enter Salesman Todd in Arizona—a GoDaddy account representative who called us repeatedly over several months. Salesman Todd encouraged us to migrate to a custom WordPress site. Knowing we produce a lot of original content for the boating industry, he pointed out that WordPress offers far superior SEO capabilities than basic site options.
Salesman Todd made everything sound effortless. As a salesman, he painted a picture of a smooth, pain-free transition. Naturally, we had two major concerns
1. How long would the site be down?
2. Would our existing URLs automatically migrate so we wouldn’t lose SEO traffic?
Having spoken with other digital marketing experts, we asked Salesman Todd specifically about 301 redirects. We understood that 301 redirects would point the current blog pages to their new home on the WordPress site. He assured us that this would be a seamless transition and that 301 redirects wouldn’t even be necessary. Reassured by his confidence, we took the leap in August 2026.
The Design Phase: Precision, Expertise, and Unexpected Humor
Our next step was meeting our website builder, Alexandru, based in Europe- Romania, to be exact. Alexandru met with us several times, and his attentiveness was truly remarkable. He listened carefully to every single detail we requested.
However, during our very first call, reality set in. Alexandru informed us right away that 301 redirects were absolutely necessary, expressing confusion over why Salesman Todd had told us otherwise. While Alexandru kindly offered to personally map out the redirects for us, he explained he couldn’t implement them himself. He suggested our next point of contact—the web hosting support team—might be able to execute them or guide us through it.
Working with Alexandru was a pleasure, even down to his deadpan professional demeanor. Small talk with him always gave us a chuckle; it was crystal clear he was there to build a great website, not make pen pals. When we jokingly asked if we’d see him on a boat in Chicago in 2027, he responded with legendary formality:
“I regret to inform you that it is not likely that I will be able to attend a boat outing with you in 2027, but I do hope that you are able to still enjoy this time without me.”
Despite his refusal of our boat trip, Alexandru delivered a beautiful, highly functional website. Well… almost.
The Glitch: A Hot Mess on the News Page
When the site migrated, one major issue reared its head: our Blog and News pages. On our old site, these were two distinct entities—the blog featured original content, while the news page tracked our features on television, radio, and in print media.
On the new site, the migrated pages were merged into a single area and populated in reverse chronological order with incorrect dates. Articles from 2023 sat front and center on page one, while our brand-new summer 2026 content was buried on the last page. It was a complete hot mess.
By then, our time with Alexandru was over, and he stopped answering emails. The same went for Salesman Todd in Arizona.
As the saying goes in sales, once the contract is signed, the line often goes quiet. Bryan Dozeman, a retired expert salesman for Herman Miller furniture based in Holland, Michigan, captures this phenomenon perfectly:
“In our business, the motto is: once you’ve made the sale, stop talking.”
It seems Salesman Todd took that motto to heart.
The Customer Support Spiral
With our original contacts MIA, they passed us along to GoDaddy’s advanced customer support team in the Philippines (a three-month trial was included with our website package).
What followed was weeks of frustration:
- Call 1 (45 minutes): We explained that the news and blog pages needed to be separated and ordered correctly, with recent articles first. The agent assured us it would be fixed promptly. A week passed; nothing changed.
- Call 2: The next agent seemed shocked that the work hadn’t been completed and promised to prioritize it. A day later, we received an email claiming the issue was resolved. We checked the site—it looked identical. Zero changes.
- Call 3 (60+ minutes): Another long call, another shocked agent, and another promise of high-priority handling, including a promised callback within 3–4 hours. The callback never came.
After spending over six hours on the phone re-explaining the issue to various agents across the globe, we realized we were running in circles. We were approaching the two-month mark for a two-week project.
The Rescue: Getting Across the Finish Line
Exhausted by the delays, we officially submitted a ticket asking GoDaddy support not to touch the page anymore. We decided to hire outside help to get the job done right.
We reached out to Dan Pizzolato, owner of Pizzolato Marketing LLC, an independent digital marketing consultancy. Dan stepped in, took a comprehensive look under the hood, and had our news page fixed within a couple of hours. Beyond fixing the layout, Dan resolved underlying technical issues that had gone completely unaddressed during the transition.
As Dan put it when reviewing our setup:
“A small business owner shouldn’t need to understand WordPress plugins or email delivery to know whether customer inquiries are reaching them. In reviewing Boat Safe Chicago’s setup, we found confusing email reports, significant contact form spam, and notification emails landing in the spam folder. These are basic parts of a business website that deserve testing and a clear explanation before handoff. A website needs to do more than look finished; it needs to reliably connect the business with its customers.”
A massive thank you to Dan for stepping up, saving the day, and putting those final critical pieces in order.
Looking Forward
We’ve since reached back out to Salesman Todd, asking GoDaddy to reimburse us for hiring an outside expert to fix what their team couldn’t, but—unsurprisingly—it’s been radio silence.
Website migrations, miscommunication, and support runarounds are just a few of the hurdles small business owners face. While the process was far more stressful than it needed to be, staying focused on what matters most—delivering a great experience for our customers—kept us moving forward.
Today, the new Boat Safe Chicago website looks fantastic, functions smoothly, and makes booking easier than ever for our guests. The water ahead looks clear, and we’re ready for the 2027 season!