The 5 stages of grief: - Denial - Anger - Bargaining - Depression - Acceptance When you think of Grief, you associate it with death. As hearing the "bad news" that someone you knew is now gone from this world. However upon theorising about the grief as a whole, it can be applied to any situation when somebody hears "bad news" coming to a set course of reaction and personal conflict. How it can be applied: Example scenario: Someone returning a damage item. In this scenario, a customer brings a damaged item to the store where they had bought the item originally. However, the customer knows that they damaged the item to the point where it cannot be return. The goal for this "unsatisfied" customer is to attempt to gain back the money they spent regardless of their deceitful act to return something that cannot be returned. - The person hands over their damaged item, the employee at the store , they checks for the damages, checks for the receipt of purchase and makes an evaluation that this item cannot be returned. The employee is considering that this person knows that the damage maybe have been by own personal fault and the customer knows it is un-salvageable, and cannot be returned. -- Upon hearing this bad news as the customer's plan to get what they want has been... unfruitful. The customer immediately jumps into [Denial], after their "polite" act to ease through the deceit, doesn't seem to be going smoothly as planned. Claiming "it was like this when I opened it" or "It broke minutes after opening it". Hoping by lying and giving a false excuse this person can still achieve their goal through a lies. --- However lies doesn't seem to be working, which leads to the next unplanned strategy to achieve their goal: [Bargaining]. The customer attempts to make a "deal". For maybe store credit, or just replacing the item with one that isn't damaged, a brand new one. The employee just wants to move on as well as keep their job, as they try to explain to this disgruntled customer: the "policy" on highly damaged items. ---- Once again, the customer does not get what they want. So without warning the customer lashes out in [Anger]. Hoping by just making a scene they could still achieve their original goal. Yelling out nonsense such as: "Are you kidding me!! I came all the way here and you're telling me I can't get a return for this faulty item" "Can you believe this, this shop is trying to rip me off" And of course: "The customer is always right!" The manager of the store over hears the chaos and steps in to de-escalate the situation. Noticing how the employee can not handle the situation at hand. Upon arrival the customer is still [Angry], because they still haven't gotten what they wanted. Now sprouting about the unsatisfactory performance of the employee who won't give them what they want. "Your employee is competent" "The customer service has been poor" "They are not doing their job" The manager tries to make sense of the situation, trying to calm the customer down as well as figure out why he is angry. The employee tells the manager exactly what happened and why he is angry. The customer cuts in as hey realise how the story makes themselves the "bad guy", hoping to justify themselves by making excuses. ----- The manager, takes responsibility, takes command and makes apologise to comfort the customer. However cannot return the item for a full refund, and offers a discount. The customer has 3 choices: 1. [Anger] to continue making a scene, blaming the store and its manager in hopes to form a some sort of mob. In which the customers around are leaving the store and avoiding potential danger. Security and the police will show up to deter any potential violence in-which upon investigation would also come to the conclusion that the item cannot be refunded. The customer still angry hours later, yelling and preaching in [Denial] to the friends and the world of the Internet that the store is ripping people off, another attempt to form a mob. Sadly everyone sees him as a fool. Only months or years later he would finally [Accept] that he was wrong. 2. [Depression] He could just walk away, unsatisfied feeling as if the world is against falling into [Depression], depending on his circumstances in life... attempt to take his life, because he could not get a refund. Although the possibility of this is very low it should be taken into consideration. 3. [Acceptance] takes the discount, apologises for his behaviour, purchases a new item to replace the broken one. The manager and employee and everyone around sighs in relief. With the conclusion of the customer simply accepting that he could get what he wanted however shouldn't get all angry over something as minor as this. Everybody moves on with their lives.