diff --git a/lib/call-session.js b/lib/call-session.js
index 7c2afbf..255aae4 100644
--- a/lib/call-session.js
+++ b/lib/call-session.js
@@ -665,7 +665,21 @@ class CallSession extends Emitter {
         }
       }
     } catch (err) {
-      if ('abandonded' !== err.message) this.logger.error({err}, `Error setting up outbound call to: ${uris}`);
+      if ('abandoned' !== err.message) this.logger.error({err}, `Error setting up outbound call to: ${uris}`);
+
+      /* the call count was incremented on 'init' but we bailed out before connecting (e.g. caller
+         hung up before the B leg answered), so we must decrement it here - no failure response is
+         sent on this path, so the res.once('end') safety net in middleware would not fire.
+         nudgeCallCounts is a no-op if the count was already decremented elsewhere. */
+      const {writeCallCount, writeCallCountSP, writeCallCountApp} = this.req.srf.locals;
+      nudgeCallCounts(this.req, 'failure', {
+        service_provider_sid: this.service_provider_sid,
+        account_sid: this.account_sid,
+        application_sid: this.application_sid,
+        callId: this.req.locals.callId
+      }, this.decrKey, {writeCallCountSP, writeCallCount, writeCallCountApp})
+        .catch((err) => this.logger.error(err, 'Error decrementing call counts'));
+
       this.emit('failed');
       this.srf.endSession(this.req);
       this.rtpEngineResource.destroy();