diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8f26c842..aa4fb5ea 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 - Use Selectize.js for entering tags (#324)
 - Zulip integration (#202)
 - OpsGenie integration returns more detailed error messages
+- Telegram integration returns more detailed error messages
 
 ### Bug Fixes
 - The "render_docs" command checks if markdown and pygments is installed (#329)
diff --git a/hc/api/tests/test_notify.py b/hc/api/tests/test_notify.py
index c6040eb6..694b8781 100644
--- a/hc/api/tests/test_notify.py
+++ b/hc/api/tests/test_notify.py
@@ -592,6 +592,16 @@ class NotifyTestCase(BaseTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(payload["chat_id"], 123)
         self.assertTrue("The check" in payload["text"])
 
+    @patch("hc.api.transports.requests.request")
+    def test_telegram_returns_error(self, mock_post):
+        self._setup_data("telegram", json.dumps({"id": 123}))
+        mock_post.return_value.status_code = 400
+        mock_post.return_value.json.return_value = {"description": "Hi"}
+
+        self.channel.notify(self.check)
+        n = Notification.objects.first()
+        self.assertEqual(n.error, 'Received status code 400 with a message: "Hi"')
+
     @patch("hc.api.transports.requests.request")
     def test_sms(self, mock_post):
         self._setup_data("sms", "+1234567890")
diff --git a/hc/api/transports.py b/hc/api/transports.py
index 53c1a67b..7519a80d 100644
--- a/hc/api/transports.py
+++ b/hc/api/transports.py
@@ -142,7 +142,9 @@ class Shell(Transport):
 class HttpTransport(Transport):
     @classmethod
     def get_error(cls, response):
-        return f"Received status code {response.status_code}"
+        # Override in subclasses: look for a specific error message in the
+        # response and return it.
+        return None
 
     @classmethod
     def _request(cls, method, url, **kwargs):
@@ -156,7 +158,12 @@ class HttpTransport(Transport):
 
             r = requests.request(method, url, **options)
             if r.status_code not in (200, 201, 202, 204):
-                return cls.get_error(r)
+                m = cls.get_error(r)
+                if m:
+                    return f'Received status code {r.status_code} with a message: "{m}"'
+
+                return f"Received status code {r.status_code}"
+
         except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
             # Well, we tried
             return "Connection timed out"
@@ -261,15 +268,10 @@ class OpsGenie(HttpTransport):
     @classmethod
     def get_error(cls, response):
         try:
-            m = response.json().get("message")
-            if m:
-                code = response.status_code
-                return f'Received status code {code} with a message: "{m}"'
+            return response.json().get("message")
         except ValueError:
             pass
 
-        return super().get_error(response)
-
     def notify(self, check):
         headers = {
             "Conent-Type": "application/json",
@@ -441,6 +443,13 @@ class Discord(HttpTransport):
 class Telegram(HttpTransport):
     SM = "https://api.telegram.org/bot%s/sendMessage" % settings.TELEGRAM_TOKEN
 
+    @classmethod
+    def get_error(cls, response):
+        try:
+            return response.json().get("description")
+        except ValueError:
+            pass
+
     @classmethod
     def send(cls, chat_id, text):
         return cls.post(
@@ -560,15 +569,10 @@ class Zulip(HttpTransport):
     @classmethod
     def get_error(cls, response):
         try:
-            m = response.json().get("msg")
-            if m:
-                code = response.status_code
-                return f'Received status code {code} with a message: "{m}"'
+            return response.json().get("msg")
         except ValueError:
             pass
 
-        return super().get_error(response)
-
     def notify(self, check):
         _, domain = self.channel.zulip_bot_email.split("@")
         url = "https://%s/api/v1/messages" % domain