diff --git a/news/78.bugfix.rst b/news/78.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bee3e3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/78.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fixed a bug in ``vistir.misc.locale_encoding`` which caused invocation of a non-existent method called ``getlocaleencoding`` which forced all systems to use default encoding of ``ascii``.
diff --git a/src/vistir/misc.py b/src/vistir/misc.py
index fe88dc1..23b5999 100644
--- a/src/vistir/misc.py
+++ b/src/vistir/misc.py
@@ -514,7 +514,7 @@ def chunked(n, iterable):
 
 
 try:
-    locale_encoding = locale.getdefaultencoding()[1] or "ascii"
+    locale_encoding = locale.getdefaultlocale()[1] or "ascii"
 except Exception:
     locale_encoding = "ascii"