To help managers better balance online service failures and recovery strategies, organisations are increasingly offering a variety of recovery programmes. Anecdotal reports suggest that organisations are experimenting with various recovery strategies, and particularly transitioning offline recovery strategies into the emerging technological tapestries. Drawing on data collected from two Balkan countries (Kosovo and Albania) with varying service failures, recovery strategies and levels of participation in online environments, this study examines how interactions between the customer and provider impact on recovery strategies. Unlike existing studies regarding online service failure and recovery strategies, we argue that rather than examining the subconscious of the customer as a stand-alone explanation for failure-recovery perceptions, interactions with the provider must also be taken into account. The current study extends the related construct of failure-recovery perceptions and it suggests that service failure generates different recovery strategies based on the contextual social world.