diff --git a/lib/messagebus/mailer.rb b/lib/messagebus/mailer.rb
index 360be8f93..c170524fc 100644
--- a/lib/messagebus/mailer.rb
+++ b/lib/messagebus/mailer.rb
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ module Messagebus
         raise "message bus failures: #{e.message} #{@things.map{|x| x[:fromEmail]}.inspect}, #{message['from']}"
       end
       if status[:failureCount] && status[:failureCount] > 0
-        raise "Messagebus failure.  failureCount=#{failureCount}, message=#{message.inspect}"
+        raise "Messagebus failure.  failureCount=#{status[:failureCount]}, message=#{message.inspect}"
       end
     end
   end