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Website fixes, New Zealand

Website fixes. Nearly all of it is fixable.

Send me the address and one line about what is wrong. I go and look properly, for nothing, and reply in writing with what is actually broken, whether it is worth repairing, and a fixed price before anything is touched. If the answer is that it is a ten minute job you can do yourself, the reply says that instead.

Send me the broken siteWhat usually goes wrong

Or call Nick on 021 217 1760, or send a text.

What it usually turns out to be

Six faults, and what is normally behind them.

Almost every broken small business site is one of these. Find yours and you will have a decent idea what you are dealing with before you have spoken to anyone.

  • The site is down, or says "not secure"

    Usually a certificate that expired, a hosting bill that bounced, or a domain that quietly lapsed. Often the cheapest thing here to put right, and the one that costs most per day while it is left.

  • Enquiries stopped arriving

    The most expensive fault a small site has, because nothing looks broken. Nearly always the form sending from an address your mail provider will not vouch for, so it lands in spam or is thrown away silently. Fixed by sending from your own domain properly, then testing it to a real inbox.

  • It falls apart on a phone

    Text you have to pinch to read, buttons that miss, a menu that will not close, or a page that scrolls sideways. Most sites are checked by making a desktop browser narrow, which is not the same thing as holding a phone. Usually a fix rather than a rebuild.

  • Google is showing the wrong thing

    An old description, a page that no longer exists, the wrong hours, or a competitor above you on your own business name. Some of that is the site, some of it is your Google Business Profile, and the two disagreeing with each other is the usual cause.

  • It takes forever to load

    Nearly always photographs straight off a camera at full size, plus a stack of plugins each loading its own scripts. Both are fixable without touching the design, and both matter more on mobile data than any redesign would.

  • Nobody can get in

    The person who built it has stopped answering, the logins were never handed over, and nobody is sure who holds the domain. This is a recovery job before it is a technical one, and it is more often solvable than people expect.

How it is priced

No hourly rate, on purpose.

An hourly rate makes a repair open ended, which is the wrong shape for a job neither of us can see the bottom of yet. So a fix runs in three steps, and you can stop at any of them.

One, I look, and looking is free. You send the address and a line about what is wrong. I go through the site myself and write back with what is actually happening, in plain English, usually inside 2 working days. That reply is useful on its own and you are welcome to take it elsewhere.

Two, you get a fixed price for a named fault. Not a range, not an estimate. The thing being fixed is written down with the price next to it, and nothing starts until you say yes. If I get in there and find something bigger underneath, you hear about it then, with a decision to make, rather than on the invoice.

Three, it is tested before I call it done. A form fix is tested to a real inbox, a phone fix checked on an actual handset, a speed fix measured before and after. "It works on my machine" is not a delivery.

And if the honest answer is a replacement rather than a repair, you get that in writing too. A one page rebuild is NZ$990, and what that involves is on the redesign page.

Already have a site that works, and the question is really AI? AI for small business in NZ covers where it is worth paying for, where it is not, and what each piece costs.

Afterwards

Or stop paying for the same fix twice.

Most faults on this page are the result of nobody having the job of looking. A care plan gives it to somebody. These two are the ones that suit a site after a fix, and they work on sites I did not build.

Essentials

Essentials

NZ$69/monthor NZ$690 a year

For a site that does not change much and just needs to stay up, safe and backed up.

The full list of what is covered
Cancel any time, by email. No exit fee.Ask about Essentials
Standard

Standard

NZ$129/monthor NZ$1,290 a year

For a business that changes prices, hours, photos or staff now and then and wants it done for them.

The full list of what is covered
Cancel any time, by email. No exit fee.Ask about Standard

Care plans work for sites we built and sites we did not. Sites built elsewhere get a written review first. All prices are in New Zealand dollars, with no GST added. Tea Break Studio is not registered for GST, so no GST is charged on any price, quote or invoice.

Other people's sites

Two sites I took over while they were running.

Both were built by somebody else before I took them on. Neither stopped working while they were being sorted out.

  • Killer Groom home page in a desktop browser
    Live

    Killer Groom

    Store rebuild and care, Shopify

    Taken over as a live, trading store originally built by another agency, then rebuilt around the range without the shop closing. I still run it month to month as part of that job.

    Read the casekillergroom.com
  • Powder Pros home page in a desktop browser
    Live

    Powder Pros

    Website rebuild, Next.js

    Moved off an agency's WordPress hosting and a third-party enquiry form, onto a site the business can see, measure and change. The existing analytics container came across with it.

    Read the casepowderpros.co.nz
Straight answers

The awkward questions.

Including the ones about logins nobody can find and developers who stopped answering, because those are where people are most often stuck.

Anything not here, ask. 021 217 1760

Yes. It starts with a written review, because I will not put a price on code I have not read. The review tells you what is wrong, what it would take to fix, and honestly whether fixing is the right spend. You can take that review to any other developer you like. It is yours either way.
There is no published hourly rate here on purpose, because an hourly rate turns a repair into an open tab. You get a fixed price in writing for the specific fault, before anything is touched, and if I find something bigger underneath while I am in there, you hear about it before the scope moves rather than on the invoice. If you would rather this never happened again, a care plan from NZ$69 a month covers updates, backups, monitoring and a set amount of small changes.
That is extremely common and it is usually recoverable. Domains, hosting and site logins can nearly always be traced and recovered by the person or business who paid for them, and part of the review is working out who actually holds what. The one case that genuinely stops everything is a domain registered in somebody else's name who will not release it, and you will be told straight away if that is where you are.
No. Fixes happen where your site already lives, unless the hosting itself is the fault. If it is, you will be told why, what moving would cost and what it would save, and the decision is yours. Hosting stays in your name either way, and it is not included in a care plan.
It is free, and there is no call attached to it unless you want one. You send the address and what is wrong, I go and look, and you get a reply in writing, usually within 2 working days. If the answer is that it is a ten minute job you can do yourself, that is what the reply says. I would rather spend twenty minutes being useful than talk you into a rebuild.
Sometimes, and sometimes the honest answer is that rebuilding is safer and cheaper than cleaning. A compromised site usually means an out of date platform or plugin, so cleaning it without fixing how it got in just buys you a few weeks. The review says which of the two situations you are in, and it says so before you have paid for anything.
Where to go next
One next step

Send me the address and what is wrong.

That is the whole brief. No logins needed yet, no forms to gather, no meeting. I go and look at the site myself and reply in writing with what it actually is and what it would cost to put right.

Send me the site021 217 1760Call NickSend a textSame number, if a call does not suitnick@teabreakstudio.comEmail instead

One person reads these. A reply in writing, usually within 2 working days.