A High Wycombe salon has apologised after a bizarre attempt to advertise its services appeared to backfire – leaving some potential customers angry.

Shoppers were left confused and upset to find yellow ‘parking charge notice’ wallets stuck to their vehicle windscreens in High Wycombe last week – only to find a business card for For Face Sake, a High Street beauty salon, inside it instead of a penalty.

The business card for the salon, which only opened recently, seemingly acknowledged the alarm the distinctive yellow notice would cause, saying: “Now that we have your attention”, before going on to explain they are a new beauty bar in the area.

Sharing a review on the salon’s Facebook page, one angry High Wycombe resident said their mum had come back to her car that was parked in the Eden Shopping Centre to find the yellow envelope slapped on her windscreen, initially leaving her worried she had done something wrong.

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She wrote: “Disgusting salon. Never ever go to this place because they clearly think marketing through scaring their potential customer is acceptable!

“Who do you think you are putting this message on my mother’s car parked in the Eden Centre, how low have you got to stoop to get your card seen… She got so worried until she opened and saw your pathetic card. Not a good look that’s for sure!”

Another shopper also left a similar review, saying: “Came back to my car to find a 'parking charge notice' stuck on my windscreen with your business card in.

“What a stupid, inconsiderate method of advertising. Why would you think this is a good idea?”

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They later added: “Really not nice to come back to after doing a bit of shopping. Disgusting method.”

In a message sent on behalf of For Face Sake in response to the first negative review, a team member admitted their marketing ploy was meant to be funny but “may have missed the mark”.

They wrote: “We are truly sorry for any distress that this may have caused your mother as this was not our intention.

“If you look at our reviews to date you will see they have been 5* and we pride ourselves on having good vibes and making individuals feel good and valued. This was intended to be in good humour but we appreciate we may have misjudged this.

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“For review purposes, this is not a reflection of our salon and or the delivery of our staff who work very hard but a reflection of our marketing, which we appreciate on this occasion may have missed the mark.”

Speaking to the Bucks Free Press, the reviewer whose mum’s car was targeted said the salon offered them free treatments afterwards to say sorry – but they will not be taking up the offer.

While some on social media agreed the advertising method was “terrible”, another thought it was “genius marketing”.

They wrote: “I get it’s stupid but this is actually a genius way of marketing. The first thing it’s does is grab your attention straight away (granted not in the best way but still got your attention) then it makes you post their name in front of hundreds if not thousands of people. Completely for free.

“I 100% agree it’s not the best thing to do because they will cause a lot of stress to many people but when you step back and look at it from a marketing point of view it’s genius.”