diff --git a/osc/core.py b/osc/core.py
index bceb76a1..16e2b7c2 100644
--- a/osc/core.py
+++ b/osc/core.py
@@ -3697,9 +3697,10 @@ class metafile:
                     print('BuildService API error:', error_help, file=sys.stderr)
                     # examine the error - we can't raise an exception because we might want
                     # to try again
-                    data = e.read()
-                    if b'<summary>' in data:
-                        print(data.split(b'<summary>')[1].split(b'</summary>')[0], file=sys.stderr)
+                    root = ET.fromstring(e.read())
+                    summary = root.find('summary')
+                    if summary is not None:
+                        print(summary.text, file=sys.stderr)
                     ri = raw_input('Try again? ([y/N]): ')
                     if ri not in ['y', 'Y']:
                         break