diff --git a/lib/tasks/gather.js b/lib/tasks/gather.js
index 8aa1bdc9..6a87441b 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/gather.js
+++ b/lib/tasks/gather.js
@@ -824,10 +824,11 @@ class TaskGather extends SttTask {
       if (code === 413 && error === 'Too much speech') return this._resolve('timeout');
     }
     this.logger.info({evt}, 'TaskGather:_onJambonzError');
+    const errMessage = evt.error || evt.Message;
     writeAlerts({
       account_sid: cs.accountSid,
       alert_type: AlertType.STT_FAILURE,
-      message: `Custom speech vendor ${this.vendor} error: ${evt.error}`,
+      message: `Custom speech vendor ${this.vendor} error: ${errMessage}`,
       vendor: this.vendor,
     }).catch((err) => this.logger.info({err}, 'Error generating alert for jambonz custom connection failure'));
     this.notifyError({msg: 'ASR error', details:`Custom speech vendor ${this.vendor} error: ${evt.error}`});