You could be using different common situations for this question. Take as an example the following scenario where the things went from bad to good: At a job, a female customer came in cursing and yelling. the clerk knew it was out of frustration so he didn't take it personally. He listened carefully and apologized. She was complaining about an item she wanted to return, and the problem was that she didn't have her receipt. He explained that he wasn't able to give her a cash refund without the receipt, but that he could allow her to have the same amount in store credit. It ended up to be a good situation for everybody