figured out the problem
for some strange reason, the utf8convert app does not seem compatible with hostgator's shared hosting, tried 2 different domains without luck. solution for me: export database, import to hostgator VPS, convert to UTF-8, then export and import back to the shared account. working fine now.
of course if you can manually convert to UTF-8, then the app would not show.
wasn't able to convert everything it seems, before.
huski's post in convert to utf-8 was marked as the answer