I've dropped my laptops a few times over the years. Most of the time, it has survived without significant damage. The only time that my laptop suffered a violent death was when my backpack had a zipper failure, and opened up when I had reached the top of the stairs at the Park St. T stop in BOS. I turned behind me to watch my poor Dell laptop do cartwheels down the 2+ storeys and break apart into many little pieces at the bottom.

What did I do then? Call Dell and told them I dropped my laptop. They had someone out the next day w/ a brand new one! ^

Side question:

A friend of mine had given her laptop bag to the cloak room attendant in the J Arrivals lounge of a transatlantic carrier. The attendant had accidentally dropped her laptop and now, apparently, the screen has been damaged and no longer functions. She didn't discover this until arriving at her hotel room, however. Luckily this wasn't her personal laptop, but if you didn't have a comprehensive damage protection policy that covered situations like this, what advice would you all offer? I know most cloak rooms have limitations of liability statements, but is there really any shared culpability in these situations?