Neither he nor you did that.
no, it did, and it happens quite a bit. http://laist.com/2013/12/17/uber_driver_demands_500_for_phone_l.php
I called him two minutes after he dropped me off and he was like, "ummm, I have it, what do you want me to do?" and I'm like "BRING ME BACK MY LAPTOP" and he's like "I'll have to charge you" thinking it would be like a standard fare for him to bring it back. (I had no idea what their policy was and just assumed it was company policy, I was a little stressed at this point.) I was like, "Fine. whatever. just bring it back." When he got back I was like, "um, so my app just takes care of this or whatever?" and he's like, "um, no, that's not how it works" and I told him I didn't have any cash and he's like "um, um, bye". Like I said, a nice way of telling him to eff off. I would never say that to a real human.
I mean, I would have thrown him a few bones. Leaving the laptop in the car was your error. The guy incurs an opportunity cost by delivering the laptop to your location. It would be the decent thing to do.
I honestly didn't have any cash (that's one of the selling points for Uber, right?), called him two minutes after he dropped me off, and didn't know the policy for lost items was just "figure it out with the driver". This guy wasn't coming up with a solution at all, just asking me what I wanted to do. He also lied about how far away he was when I called him and I legitimately thought he could charge me through the app (like an extra ride) when he mentioned that as a possible solution. Straight up asking for cash was poor form.
And like I said, I have used Uber since and will use again, especially if a cab is the alternative. My only real problem w/ Uber is I can't schedule them for super early morning trips to the airport and I'm paranoid about not having any drivers close when I need to be to the airport early.