I view it as an attention to detail thing. If I order some trousers I wouldn't be happy if they deliver them two size too big and say "well they're as big as you requested".

Similarly with the skeleton it may not have explicitly stated that it needed to be constructed but the teams should have understood that it was expected. This isn't the task to try and be clever and twist words. Because in real life if a supplier tries to cut corners and outsmart you then you would not use them going forward.

Yes but these sinks are taken out of 'out houses' and put into designer type kitchens. In my eyes that sink needed work, to be of 'practical use', as much as the skeleton needed work to be of practical use.

If repeat business is important, it should be applied as a criteria in every task. On the coach trip, those basic cheap sandwiches would have ensured no one ever used that company again and it would have got awful reviews.

they don't say, but it wouldn't have surprised me if the producers don't refund everything.

in those cases, LS should apply a quality assessment and fine teams for poor quality work. I expect people are really embarrassed when they see themselves on telly buying the rubbish that these teams provide

it doesn't matter. This last task has shown me that the program has final lost all integrity. The BBC should exercise some editorial control. This has potentially cost Felipe a £250K investment. I have complained to the BBC anyway.

With regard to the sink, Mark's took pains to pick a sound sink. The other lot purchased a poor quality sink without comment. That sink would have been Ok to serve as a plant trough in a garden, but not in a house.

LS rigged the penalties just to do exactly what he wanted. His assistants and the BBC stood by supinely. The follow up show didn't even have the decency to build and compare the paper skeleton with the plastic one.

It's a big shame that the four of them didn't have the courage to stand together and refuse to accept the decision. No sackings, or we all walk.

Felipe on local radio this morning saying that in a court of law, it would have without question fitted the specifications and LS's complaint would have been thrown out.

1. Not true. Bianca confirmed with the merchant that the sink was "usable". Now that's a very subjective description, but it was what was in the task instructions. To my eye it was borderline as the surface was damaged, but was it usable? I think she did enough to justify that it was.

2. To be clear, the production crew are not BBC - they are independent production company Talkback Thames. The BBC commission the show, but Talkback do all the actual filming and production in accordance with agreed guidelines with the Beeb. It's unlikely anyone from the BBC was there, and certainly not in a decision-making capacity. Unusually for a BBC show, even publicity isn't handled by a BBC publicist - it's handled by two people from external PR firm Taylor Herring.

I seem to recall that it was specifically mentioned that no one had asked for a refund.

The problem is that Felipe wasn't in a law court. He was on a show inspired by business with a potential invester who is known for being a cantankerous old git. It's not the time to start trying to show him up.

True, ultimately his complaint is not valid. Yeah, he probably should have just got a typical skeleton, but it still counted. It just annoys me that Sugar seemed to fire him not out of trying to be smart and getting it cheaper, but because he felt outsmarted.

It's hardly inspired by proper bussiness if decisions are driven by a "cantankerous old git's" whims.

Rightly or wrongly things do come down to these people's whims. I've seen multi-million £ projects being cancelled on petty details.

There's also a business rationalisation for this. Lord Sugar clearly said the focus of the task was negotiation for a list of items. It wasn't "be a smart-arse". If Felipe can't get that right in a task how will he be in a business deal...? Can Felipe be trused to do what he is told...?

And the reason people cancel multi-million deals over petty details is that if people can't get detail right they are not likely to get the rest of it right either. (Being a cantankerous old git is fun as well.)

I think the main sticking point was LAS got outsmarted, and that must not be allowed.

The devil is in the details, and yes it was a rubbish paper skeleton in a bag, but the details never specified it had to be in one piece, or 3 dimensional. I think it should have been allowed for being crafty and following the specs they had been given.

The lesson is, buying a cheap flat pack skeleton isn't allowed, but killing someone, boiling off the body and presenting the skelly probably would be. Shame because they could've got that for free.

I don't think that was so stupid. In a "real life" situation, I would have done the same. If I was asked to get something of a certain length that could easily be cut to meet requirements, I would go for something longer. It would be a safer option than arriving back and finding the length you had brought back was too small.
Admittedly, the tasks are about attention to detail and not based on real life, but it still doesn't make the decision stupid.

Is that strictly true though ? It's never made clear who they are supposed to be buying for, and what purpose the items are going to be used for. An impecunious medical student looking for a life-size skeleton to study might be happy to construct the paper model and put it against his wall..it would also save him more than £200.

As others have mentioned, the cheap sink brought back might be totally useless to some well-heeled young couple trying to make a statement in their designer kitchen.

We don't even know the true value of the diamond, everyone is just taking it for granted that the dealer dropped the price down to £50 because he was overcome with lust for a pretty blonde. It might have been totally inferior to the other diamond, from my experience, dealers in Hatton Garden aren't generally that stupid.

What Felipe did in last night's episode with the skeleton was the one and only time in the process he has actually impressed me. I thought the decision was inspired and that Sir Alan should have praised it as a stroke of genius. Having said that, Felipe has been deadwood most of the rest of the time, and although a nice guy, I think his time was up so the firing was not undeserved, but equally I do think he was hard done by and not given due credit for putting one over on the producers.

Personally I'd have told Sugar to his face that going into business with him is a two way process - he has to be able to work with me and I have to be able to work with him, and that skeleton decision he made showed me a side of his personality I don't like and therefore I don't want to work with him so I would have told him that I resign. Actually, I'd have probably said 'F*** you!' and given him the finger just to make sure he got the message. The team should have stood firm as one, told Sugar his decision was outrageous and all threatened to walk.

The killing/boiling couldn't have been achieved in the timeframe.

I'd argue that the skeleton is obviously under the fat, muscle and skin, the specs didn't say all that had to be stripped.

But you'd have to give yourself up to be Sugar's possession! That's not worth millions let alone £250k investment.

I think Supreme Court Justice Sugar would understand I only did it cos I was thinking outside the box.

That or I'd completely pass the buck to Felipe, he did it all on his own and I'm an innocent bystander who got suckered by his lawyer speak.

Then he is wrong. (I wish there were not two identical threads btw). The skeleton had to be at least 150cms tall. Nothing he provided was anything like 150 cms tall. It had the potential to be 150 cms tall, but that was not what AS asked for, was it? An aquilaria branch (sorry to repeat myself across threads) has the potential to be oud oil, but that doesn't mean that it would have counted. One Nigella seed has the potential to provide 1000 nigella seeds. A metre of new rope has the potential to become a meter of old rope. If someone asks for a full sized, anatomically correct skeleton, and doesn't specify the material, you could argue that paper is as good as resin, but you can't argue that a box of detached bits and pieces is just the same as a completed skeleton.

I'm sure they must refund them. All the tasks on Apprentice are obviously highly artificial. People who go on a coach trip don't expect a BBC camera crew to be there taking the piss out of everything. I'm not saying the coach trips bookings were not real, but the tv company surely can't have kept the money afterwards, any more than 'experts' from big companies are actually obliged to buy the amateurish heap of bollocks they are asked to evaluate.

Of course they expect that! They film them selling the tickets, and often Nick and Karren are there. The people know it's for The Apprentice - and even if they'd never seen the show and somehow they didn't know about it, they'd still know that it was for a TV show, therefore different to real life. I've never been lucky enough to have the opportunity, but I would willingly pay for something like that and not care about the quality, just for the chance to get close to the candidates and be able to say afterwards that I did it.

Well yes, but that would only apply to some of them. Some of them appeared to be Japanese tourists. Presumably the business people who appear on the Apprentice do so in the hope of promoting their own brand, but members of the public who join in unwittingly surely don't expect to be used as part of someone else's game show.

That's exactly what I thought while I was watching.

I personally think it should have counted. Also, everyone's talking about Daniel distancing himself, but it annoyed me the way Mark and Katie pretended they knew nothing about it- when they were all for it! They're both annoying me in general, they've been really arrogant and patronising acting as if they carry to team and their attitude towards Daniel reminds me of school kids ganging up on another.

Wonkey, I'm with you, Sugar wouldn't want to be associated with such shoddiness. He surely can't fund awful days out for people and expect them not to be compensated.

It should have counted.

Felipe spotted a loophole and exploited it.

LS just can't bear to be outsmarted IMO.