Fixing a broken battery latch

[vista]

After suffering some laptop-to-floor action [wasn't my fault], 2 out of 3 of my trusty T420's battery latches have broken off. One is still inside the battery, but moves freely (e.g. moving the battery unlock slider does not move it), and the other one has simply broken in half. I have spoken with the Lenovo service in my country, where the nice service technician/salesperson told me that it is not possible to fix [however, he suggested that I buy a new battery, and named a price that equaled the amount that I had in my bank account in the during the course of the last 3 months].

Applying liberal amounts duct tape seemed to work until I commuted back to the dorm, where I found that it has completely shut down, instead of retaining sleep mode.

Has anyone encountered this situation before? I don't see any obvious ways of re-attaching / glueing the latches other than the destructive way of breaking the outer plastic of the battery.