It was a bit embarrassing how they presented Roisin as some kind of super buyer here.

As others have said a fair amount of it imo was down to the diamond seller and her being a blonde female. I'm not taking anything away from Roisin here, or denying that she can buy or negotiate, but in this particular instance it is what it is.

If I was the seller I'd be a bit shamefaced for being such a rollover. When he watched the show and saw them basically mock him and their 'heist' of his diamond as soon as they left the shop, perhaps he'll think to brush up on his selling skills.

Perhaps it was a 25 quid industrial diamond (at best) of the required size he'd been unable to shift for a while and in walks a sucker or two and they've probably paid 3-4 times what he's paid for it and got himself a spot on TV, start them off high and give them loads of discounts and still probably walked away with 30-40 quid in his pocket

Cubic zirconia guaranteed.

I have a mate who knows that diamond dealer and he actually made a loss on it, for that reason... free publicity

Apparently the BBC reimbursed him the difference after the recording.

Do they know the BBC will pay back before haggling starts? If so its hardly surprising some of the deals they get when the shopkeeper knows theres a production guy with a roll of 20's to make it back up

Yeah, all diamond dealers in Hatton Garden are selling fake diamonds.

What a strange comment.

It won't be fake, but I very much doubt it was the same quality as the one the other team bought - Roisin's dealer started at about where Daniels finished iirc.

If robot1000's insider knowledge is true, the whole thing was a bit of a setup, so my comment is hardly strange.

Perhaps, but I'd say it was highly improbable, and hardly a great advertisement for his business either way.

Maybe this is what the diamond dealer is telling his mates to stop getting flack for his colossal collapse in front of an attractive (fake) blonde?

If it met the spec on the sheet they were given it doesn't matter how good or bad quality it is.

That's a pretty massive IF though isn't it?

That was luck, it was luck in the sense that she had the opportunity to target a seller with her best attributes, and it was luck that the seller seemed quite soft towards those attributes. It is completely unfair to compare Daniel's performance on the Diamond and Rosyn's performance on that basis because they are playing in disadvantage here. I mean, she got it making the guy selling it at a loss, you can just not compete with that unless you steal the bloody diamond.

On another note... I have to say that Rosyn is not the most beautiful girl in the history of The Apprentice but she has defintely something, and I dont mean tits and bum, I mean confidence, attitude, accent... she is attractive.

Can't see what publicity the guy got. We saw no POS for his company, his company wasn't mentioned. So is he hoping that we just rock up to all the diamond dealers, saying "we're on the look out for a really stupid, slightly tubby guy"

Maybe he didn't realise it wasn't going to be shown. Sometimes they show the shop front and street and mention the general location so people might be able to deduce it.

Doesn't always work with his Lordship though. He's never let his most capable saleswomen win. The pushy type at best made it to the final and lost. The more corporate people, who could sell and present brilliantly , he rejected as too smooth. He sent two of the biggest successes the show has seen - who both hold major selling/retail jobs now - home - one at this stage, one in the final.

Roisin's advantage may be that, as an accountant , she may be able to repeat Leah's financial command of her poposal in the last stages. Her disadvantage is that she is most like Leah in many ways, and they might want someone who looked different.

haha!


I just don't believe that a diamond dealer is going to be easily flim-flammed. They're hard-nosed businessmen, they have to be. I'm sure that they come up against some real sharks and swindlers.

Cheers for the inside info, robot1000

Yes and no. Please bear it in mind that it's all a guess on my part:

They know there's an option to be reimbursed for a loss, which is standard in most productions, but it doesn't necessarily mean they understand this can be extended to discounts during the haggling process itself.

Most usually understood it as compensation for a broken item that a participant broke, or when regular customers couldn't enter their shop or business site during the filming.

The fact the diamond dealer was reimbursed for that hefty discount suggests he wasn't as stupid as he looked. It's likely he was shrewd enough to ask for a clarification of that option before he entered the haggling process. I have to say, this is pretty unusual, though.

If it's unusual as you say, do you think there would be a case for saying that there might be a kind of manipulation to create a narrative to make Roisin look good? Certainly Karren was effusive in her praise. I'm not suggesting it happened that way, just interested in the show dynamics.

Depends. Some productions require a chain of authorisation, which can take days or weeks to process. Some productions allow the full reins, e.g. do as you like, providing it doesn't contribute to going over the budget. I find that in most cases, there's a resistance to paying more than necessary, e.g. when they find one that wants more than the usual, they go to someone else.

I don't know The Apprentice's stance on their budget, but the production companies are Talkback/Mark Burnett, which have a reputation for being fairly strict with budgets. BBC can be tight-fisted as well (they once refused to allow £159.43 because it wasn't listed in the estimated budget so our director or production manager had to pay it out of his pocket, which he later filed as a living expense).

With those in mind, I'm guessing it was cleared long before the day of filming.

Either way, perhaps the diamond dealer was shrewd enough to ask for a clarification during the negotiation. Perhaps he changed his mind and got upset after the filming until they smoothed his ruffled feathers with compensation. There's a possibility that he lied to his family and friends about being compensated to save his face. Who knows, really? But I don't believe there was manipulation involved to make Roisin look good.

Sorry, I just realised I didn't explain why I was talking budgets when you were interested about the editorial process.

I was trying to explain that the editorial process depends on the set-up of a budget, which controls the flexibility of what one can do during the editorial and/or filming process.

In my view, unless they are psychics, it's unlikely that they predicted Roisin would be the one negotiating with that diamond dealer during the time of obtaining permission and agreement to film on his business site weeks or days earlier. I hope this makes sense.

Note to self: do not write while feeling half-dead during a night shift.

It does, thanks for a comprehensive answer