diff --git a/src/chatbot/chatbot.module.ts b/src/chatbot/chatbot.module.ts
index 0e61e04..13db2e3 100644
--- a/src/chatbot/chatbot.module.ts
+++ b/src/chatbot/chatbot.module.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,11 @@ import { HttpModule } from '@nestjs/axios';
 import { ChatbotService } from 'src/chatbot/chatbot.service';
 
 @Module({
-  imports: [HttpModule],
+  imports: [
+    HttpModule.register({
+      timeout: 5 * 60 * 1000,   // 5 minutes in milliseconds
+    })
+  ],
   controllers: [ChatbotController],
   providers: [ChatbotService],
   exports: [],
diff --git a/src/chatbot/chatbot.service.ts b/src/chatbot/chatbot.service.ts
index 6fe900d..3df19d7 100644
--- a/src/chatbot/chatbot.service.ts
+++ b/src/chatbot/chatbot.service.ts
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ import { Injectable } from '@nestjs/common';
 import { UserMessageDto } from 'src/chatbot/dtos/user-message.dto';
 import { HttpService } from '@nestjs/axios';
 import { firstValueFrom } from 'rxjs';
-import { PageContextDto } from 'src/chatbot/dtos/page-context.dto';
 import { Message } from 'src/chatbot/dtos/dialog-message.dto';
+import { AxiosError, isAxiosError } from 'axios';
 
 @Injectable()
 export class ChatbotService {
@@ -11,15 +11,24 @@ export class ChatbotService {
     sessionId: string = 'testing';
 
     async pingExternalApi(body: UserMessageDto, email: string): Promise<Message> {
-        const { data } = await firstValueFrom(this.httpService.post(
-            'https://n8nai.targo.ca/webhook/chatty-Mcbot', 
-            { userInput: body.userInput, userId: email, sessionId: this.sessionId, pageContext: body.pageContext ?? undefined }
-        ));
+        try {
+            const { data } = await firstValueFrom(this.httpService.post(
+                'https://n8nai.targo.ca/webhook/chatty-Mcbot', 
+                { userInput: body.userInput, userId: email, sessionId: this.sessionId, pageContext: body.pageContext ?? undefined }
+            ));
+    
+            return {
+                text: data[0].output,
+                sent: false,
+            };
+        } catch (error) {
+            console.error(error);
 
-        return {
-            text: data[0].output,
-            sent: false,
-        };
+            return {
+                text: 'chatbot.error.GENERIC_RESPONSE_ERROR',
+                sent: false,
+            }
+        }
     }
 
     // async sendPageContext(body: PageContextDto, email: string) {