diff --git a/aitelemetry/telemetrywrapper.go b/aitelemetry/telemetrywrapper.go
index 36c59c212a..7caacf2979 100644
--- a/aitelemetry/telemetrywrapper.go
+++ b/aitelemetry/telemetrywrapper.go
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ const (
 	azurePublicCloudStr              = "AzurePublicCloud"
 	hostNameKey                      = "hostname"
 	defaultTimeout                   = 10
+	maxCloseTimeoutInSeconds         = 30
 	defaultBatchIntervalInSecs       = 15
 	defaultBatchSizeInBytes          = 32768
 	defaultGetEnvRetryCount          = 5
@@ -330,8 +331,35 @@ func (th *telemetryHandle) Close(timeout int) {
 		timeout = defaultTimeout
 	}
 
+	// max wait is the minimum of the timeout and maxCloseTimeoutInSeconds
+	maxWaitTimeInSeconds := timeout
+	if maxWaitTimeInSeconds < maxCloseTimeoutInSeconds {
+		maxWaitTimeInSeconds = maxCloseTimeoutInSeconds
+	}
+
 	// wait for items to be sent otherwise timeout
-	<-th.client.Channel().Close(time.Duration(timeout) * time.Second)
+	// similar to the example in the appinsights-go repo: https://github.com/microsoft/ApplicationInsights-Go#shutdown
+	timer := time.NewTimer(time.Duration(maxWaitTimeInSeconds) * time.Second)
+	defer timer.Stop()
+	select {
+	case <-th.client.Channel().Close(time.Duration(timeout) * time.Second):
+		// timeout specified for retries.
+
+		// If we got here, then all telemetry was submitted
+		// successfully, and we can proceed to exiting.
+
+	case <-timer.C:
+		// absolute timeout.  This covers any
+		// previous telemetry submission that may not have
+		// completed before Close was called.
+
+		// There are a number of reasons we could have
+		// reached here.  We gave it a go, but telemetry
+		// submission failed somewhere.  Perhaps old events
+		// were still retrying, or perhaps we're throttled.
+		// Either way, we don't want to wait around for it
+		// to complete, so let's just exit.
+	}
 
 	// Remove diganostic message listener
 	if th.diagListener != nil {