Originally Posted by
garykung
Not necessary.
Airlines is definitely out because the laptop was outside the airline's control. In term of the pax causing the damage, it simply will take too many efforts without a proved success.
Your best bet is with the travel insurance, even denied. First, you should file a complain with your state's insurance commissioner (IC) first. The IC will help you getting the insurance company back to the table to work out a solution. If not, then you can go after the insurance company for insurance bad faith.
I'd also dispute the insurance decision. Was this just an opinion or from a filed claim?
"
Deliberate"? On whose part?
Surely they can't claim that you DELIBERATELY damaged the laptop in this case.
And do they really think that the person in front of you DELIBERATELY damaged your laptop?
That type of reasoning gets absurd quickly, e.g., A step on a staircase gave way, but the injured person "deliberately was walking down the stairs" (!??)
It sounds like the laptop got "caught" in a very unlikely-but-specific problem spot. If it had been against the regular seat back, it probably would just have closed the top (?). This clearly seems like an accidental event, and not one that could easily have been foreseen, er, until one learns about this possibility...
If you can reach an actual claims adjuster, and the conversation isn't antagonistic (yet!), then I've found that playing "naive" often helps... as in... "Gee... I'm not sure this is how it's supposed to work. Do you think the State Insurance Commissioner's Office could help to straighten out whether "deliberate" really applies here?"
Worth a try.
Or just go straight to the Commissioner's Office.
Insurance is, thank goodness, a regulated industry. No guarantee of satisfaction, of course, but a good place to start, and a better chance than for other problems.
GC