diff --git a/AFNetworking/AFJSONUtilities.h b/AFNetworking/AFJSONUtilities.h
index 95dc938..5064e37 100644
--- a/AFNetworking/AFJSONUtilities.h
+++ b/AFNetworking/AFJSONUtilities.h
@@ -82,6 +82,9 @@ static NSData * AFJSONEncode(id object, NSError **error) {
         
         [invocation invoke];
         [invocation getReturnValue:&data];
+    } else {
+        NSDictionary *userInfo = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:NSLocalizedString(@"Please either target a platform that supports NSJSONSerialization or add one of the following libraries to your project: JSONKit, SBJSON, or YAJL", nil) forKey:NSLocalizedRecoverySuggestionErrorKey];
+        [NSException exceptionWithName:NSInternalInconsistencyException reason:NSLocalizedString(@"No JSON generation functionality available", nil) userInfo:userInfo];
     }
 
     return data;
@@ -138,6 +141,9 @@ static id AFJSONDecode(NSData *data, NSError **error) {
         
         [invocation invoke];
         [invocation getReturnValue:&JSON];
+    } else {
+        NSDictionary *userInfo = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:NSLocalizedString(@"Please either target a platform that supports NSJSONSerialization or add one of the following libraries to your project: JSONKit, SBJSON, or YAJL", nil) forKey:NSLocalizedRecoverySuggestionErrorKey];
+        [NSException exceptionWithName:NSInternalInconsistencyException reason:NSLocalizedString(@"No JSON parsing functionality available", nil) userInfo:userInfo];
     }
         
     return JSON;