This study sought to evaluate the impact of perceived justice on students' negative emotional responses during service recovery. Quantitative, descriptive multi-variate regression analysis and a cross-sectional study were undertaken using a judgmental sample of 430 students drawn from three public Higher Education Institutions in South Africa. The results of this study showed that all the dimensions of justice, viz. procedural, distributive and interactional justice, have a negative and significant impact on negative emotions. The findings of this study could assist higher education institutional managers to interrogate the fairness of the processes used in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to address student grievances because they have a negative and significant impact on students' negative emotions.