diff --git a/redfish/connection.py b/redfish/connection.py
index 6f40c10..2379ece 100644
--- a/redfish/connection.py
+++ b/redfish/connection.py
@@ -127,11 +127,12 @@ import sys
 import urllib2
 from urlparse import urlparse
 
+from redfish import exception
 
 LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
-
 LOG.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
 
+
 class RedfishConnection(object):
     """Implements basic connection handling for Redfish APIs."""
 
@@ -196,7 +197,7 @@ class RedfishConnection(object):
             elif url.scheme == 'http':
                 conn = httplib.HTTPConnection(host=url.netloc, strict=True)
             else:
-                raise RedfishException(message='Unknown connection schema')
+                raise exception.RedfishException(message='Unknown connection schema')
 
             # NOTE:  Do not assume every HTTP operation will return a JSON body.
             # For example, ExtendedError structures are only required for HTTP 400
@@ -220,7 +221,9 @@ class RedfishConnection(object):
 
         response = dict()
         try:
+            LOG.debug("BODY: %s." % body.decode('utf-8'))
             response = json.loads(body.decode('utf-8'))
+            LOG.debug("Loaded json: %s" % response)
         except ValueError: # if it doesn't decode as json
             # NOTE:  resources may return gzipped content
             # try to decode as gzip (we should check the headers for Content-Encoding=gzip)
@@ -229,10 +232,7 @@ class RedfishConnection(object):
                 uncompressed_string = gzipper.read().decode('UTF-8')
                 response = json.loads(uncompressed_string)
             except:
-                pass
-
-            # return empty
-            pass
+                raise exception.RedfishException(message='Failed to parse response as a JSON document, received "%s".' % body)
 
         return resp.status, headers, response
 
diff --git a/redfish/exceptions.py b/redfish/exception.py
similarity index 64%
rename from redfish/exceptions.py
rename to redfish/exception.py
index cd320ff..99644c7 100644
--- a/redfish/exceptions.py
+++ b/redfish/exception.py
@@ -15,4 +15,13 @@
 
 class RedfishException(Exception):
     """Base class for redfish exceptions"""
-    pass
+    def __init__(self, message=None, **kwargs):
+        self.kwargs = kwargs
+
+        if not message:
+            try:
+                message = self.message % kwargs
+            except Excetion as e:
+                LOG.exception('Error in string format operation')
+                message = self.message
+        super(RedfishException, self).__init__(message)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/redfish/tests/test_redfish.py b/redfish/tests/test_redfish.py
index 9bb5ae0..dfaadc7 100644
--- a/redfish/tests/test_redfish.py
+++ b/redfish/tests/test_redfish.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ def get_response():
     class _response(object):
         status = 200
         def read(self):
-            return "{'foo': 'bar'}"
+            return '{"foo": "bar"}'
         def getheaders(self):
             return [('Fake-Header', 'fake value')]
     return _response()
@@ -91,3 +91,12 @@ class TestRedfishConnection(base.TestCase):
 #        ssl_mock.return_value = mock.Mock()
 #        con = connection.RedfishConnection(*get_fake_params)
 #        ssl_mock.assert_called_once_with(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLSv1)
+
+    def test_get_ok(self):
+        con = connection.RedfishConnection(*get_fake_params())
+        res = con.rest_get('/v1/test', '')
+        self.assertEqual(200, res[0])
+        # Headers ae lower cased when returned
+        self.assertIn('fake-header', res[1].keys())
+        print(res)
+        self.assertIn('foo', res[2].keys())
\ No newline at end of file