She suggested they pay the person they were clearing the rubbish for but the only reason that would have worked in this instance was because the other team were doing it for free (also stupid and against the advice of the scrap business owner at the beginning).
Zoe was right in asking for money from the people for the service of getting rid of it which is what is done in real life.
Susan's SO annoying and her profile is so weird

This whole thing seemed a little confused, because Nick seemed to think Susan did have the right idea.

Certainly they were told they would be charging money to take the waste away, wheras Susan apparently thought they were going to be effectively buying the waste. So you're right, she did get it wrong, and she seemed to realise this once it had been explained to her, and to have a laugh at herself over it. Once they found out the other team had taken the waste for nothing, her position looked a bit less silly, but that doesn't change that she'd picked the task up wrong.

I agree.

They were told to charge by an industry expert, money for taking the stuff away, and not giving it to people for buying it. Logic used the fact they could sell the steel to put the price down for their customer. If Susan wanted to do the same and actually pay for the desks and tables, she didn't state that clearly.

Yeah she got the wrong end of the stick completely but then look so smug when she thought she was right. The fact was that Helen's team just undercut them.

Yes, I thought so too. Her strategy was not to clear rubbish (for free or a charge) and then sell on some of it; she was merely tying to buy the desks etc from the guy. Which wasn't the task. If it was, they could all have gone round saying, I'll give you £X for the stainless steel items etc, then sold them at a profit, and not bothered with ANY actual rubbish clearance.

It was edited most oddly to make Susam look good last night; both during the task & in the boardroom. Zoe was made to look stupid at her expense. I think Susan has appeared immature and rather dense in several of the tasks now & really thought it was her time to go. Reckon she's sleeping with NIck!

But it was a silly task. Once the costs of labour, the van & petrol were factored in, nobody would have made a penny.

Nick is really obsessed and is actually given LS wrong info and advice in the boardroom.

Nick chats shit. He also made out like Zoe demanded to be the PM and wouldn't let anyone else have a look in, even when we saw everyone agreeing that she should be PM.

He's no Margaret.

Yes. I get the feeling Susan, Melody and possibly Jim are heading for the final with the way the biased edits are going.

Did you watch a different show to me? She's about the only one who looks humble and often disempowered at not being heard.

I've certainly never seen a smug expression on her face. I think you're confusing it with frustration.

She misunderstood the task totally. I am fairly sure that her "business" was underwritten by her parents. She genuinely has not got a clue and am amazed she has lasted this long

No in this case Susan was right and in fact they would have won the task if they had listened to her.

The 'standard procedure' would be to offer a price to clear the desks.

The 'hardball' tactic would be to offer to take it away for free. Both teams should have thought of this.

The winning tactic would have been to go beyond free and actually pay for the desks and chairs, knowing you could sell it on. This is the only way you can beat an offer of 'free'.

So whilst Susan may not have been clear on what the task was on paper, her gut instinct was right: We should be paying this guy for this stuff.

As LS said, if they just offered 50 quid they would have got the deal.

Even if they had offered 100 as Susan suggested, they could still have ended up 200 up and the other team would have had 300 less (based on that shop's buying price).

Phew - thought it was just me!

diary-room, no way was that what Susan was thinking, because she wouldn't have known that the other offered to do it for free.

Thank you for this, because the more the show went on, the more confused I became about who was right!

There's obviously more going on behind the scenes than we are seeing, because I do trust Nick's judgement. Perhaps Susan has been badly edited?

I would certainly have fired Zoe last night though; purely because I find her voice more annoying than nails down a blackboard.

FWIW, my workplace sometimes clears warehouses as a minor sideline, and we always do it either for free or paying to do it. You can make quite a profit that way.

I agree that Susan misunderstood the task, but the idea that it's intrinsically wrong to either offer to do it for free or to pay a small amount (particularly for good quality furniture with a retail value) is equally misguided. Perhaps, if it were our actual business, rather than something we occasionally do if we think there's a profit in it, then we'd always charge (and, again, as the guy said on You're Fired last night, you have to assess each job on its own merit) but, seeing as the last warehouse we cleared (for free) netted us in excess of £60,000 profit, I don't think it's an intrinsically flawed model.

That's the way I see it too. I can't believe there are several people on other threads saying that Susan was stupid for wanting to offer £100+ for rubbish which would have resulted in a £100+ loss. Whether they charge or pay to take the rubbish surely depends upon the value of the rubbish.

Her gut instinct was right - that was rubbish with a resale value and there was a profit to be made. What makes me believe that she is not as (admittedly) stupid as she looks is that she also said to Zoe that she would have taken the other lot for free.

This was after they had made the offer but I don't blame her for not piping up after the way Zoe had spoken to her. In the end she was right on both counts and (in apprenticeland at least) they would have made a profit on those jobs.

Exactly. Her idea was the right tactic, even though she arrived it kind of 'by accident' just using her instinct rather than thinking tactically, trying to beat the other team's bid etc.



No, Susan was basing it on common sense and instinct rather than trying to beat the other team. However, if they had been a bit more clued up, and realised how the bidding worked, they would also have arrived at this tactic.

Well clearly you are completely wrong because if they did offer even £10 to the guy to clear it they would have secured both the deals. You cannot just expect to cart away valuable items that the owner knows you are going to make a few hundred quid off and always charge. Susan knew exactly what she was suggesting. It was clear from the owners facial expressions that the deal proposed by Zoe was no where near good enough.

Both the contractors were expecting to pay to have the rubbish cleared and that's what both teams were quoting on.

If Susan's idea to pay the contractor was such a great idea why didn't the other team think of it as well and why did Edna understand what was required?

As has been pointed out Susan wouldn't have known what the other team quoted but in hindsight paying the contractor would have been one way of winning the contract but she only knew that once they were in the boardroom & that gave her the chance to be smug masking her real inadequacies.

The truth of the matter was she didn't understand what was required because she was too busy moaning & whining about what Zoe was or wasn't doing.

It was all very confusing to me. Zoe wanted to charge the first lot to take the rubbish away Susan said we should have done it for free. Was there any mention of Susan wanting to pay for the removals which I missed?

She wanted to pay for the second lot - the office furniture - that was the moment when Zoe asked Edna whether she was singing from the same hymn sheet or whatever the cliche was. The other lot she said (after the offer but before the client called them back) that she would have taken it for free.

When they were quoting for the office furniture Susan thought they had to pay the contractor not the other way round.

Totally disagree. I'm not convinced that she's a business genius but she was using her common sense. Doesn't matter what the 'rules' were or what the clients were expecting. It was about making money from rubbish and Susan's ideas were better than Zoe's. She didn't even read the guy's faces when they reacted to her offer.

In the end it might have lost them the task because they wouldn't have focussed on the plumber's job if they had won both contracts. IMO that is irrelevant in this thread. Susan was right in relation to the pre-arranged contracts and didn't deserve to have her ideas dismissed in such a nasty way.

In fact the guy at the pub said 'Is that your final offer?' to Helen(?) when she said they'd do it for free - hinting that he was actually expecting to get paid a modest amount, though that was likely more marginal than the desks as it is difficult to assess on the spot how much the metal was worth against how much the other rubbish would cost to chuck - especially if it is not your profession as is the case with the Apprentices.

The desks however should have been a no-brainer - they weren't rubbish as such - no throwing away costs, just working out how much you could make on selling them on. As others have said even if they'd offered £100 which is what Susan had in mind they'd have walked the task.

In general the girls this year do not communicate very well together in my view.

And if they had paid for the furniture they would have made a profit.

Sorry, but you are not getting this, even though it has been clearly explained.

Whenever there is 'bidding' task you never know what the other team bids. You have to anticipate, guess, and beat it using your instincts.

If both teams were clued up, they would have realised they needed to bid a low as possible to beat the other team.

So if the lowest bid wins, you obviously bid 'nothing' right? You can't beat 'free' can you? Game over, right?

No, you can beat 'free' by giving the client money for his rubbish. Why would you ever do that? Because the rubbish is worth money and you can make a profit.

To say it can't be the right thing because the other team didn't think of it is frankly a non-argument. The way you win tasks is by doing things the other team didn't think of!

And to say Zoe was right because Edna agreed.. well...

Like I said, Susan didn't arrive at her idea through tactics, she just naturally assumed they had to pay. However in this case her natural instinct was correct and they would have won the task if they'd listened to her.