diff --git a/lib/tasks/gather.js b/lib/tasks/gather.js
index bb7ce8a5..ff2f03f6 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/gather.js
+++ b/lib/tasks/gather.js
@@ -186,7 +186,8 @@ class TaskGather extends Task {
 
     const startListening = (cs, ep) => {
       this._startTimer();
-      if (this.isContinuousAsr && 0 === this.timeout) this._startAsrTimer();
+      // dont start asr timer until we have a transcription
+      //if (this.isContinuousAsr && 0 === this.timeout) this._startAsrTimer();
       if (this.input.includes('speech') && !this.listenDuringPrompt) {
         this._initSpeech(cs, ep)
           .then(() => {