Bombay Shaving Company spams customer ‘3 times a day, minimum 9 msgs’ — Founder Shantanu Deshpande replies

Published 20 June 2026 · general

"Literally forced me. I'm not joking," This is what an exasperated customer said in an open letter to Bombay Shaving Company founder Shantanu Deshpande on

"Literally forced me. I'm not joking," This is what an exasperated customer said in an open letter to Bombay Shaving Company founder Shantanu Deshpande on LinkedIn. The grievance wasn't about a faulty razor or a delayed delivery, but about an inbox under siege. The customer, Debajyoti Jena, Founder of The StartUp Circle, claimed that the grooming brand was hitting his personal WhatsApp number “3 times a day - from 3 different official business WhatsApp accounts - minimum 9 messages in a day”. Jena, who said he has “admired the work of Shantanu Deshpande” for years, noted that he doesn't write any negative posts about entrepreneurs or brands, “but this was really annoying and disgusting to get repeated notifications and spam from a brand in a day.” In the viral LinkedIn post, Jena said, Bombay Shaving Company “forced” him to block three of their official business WhatsApp accounts — “Literally forced me.

I'm not joking.” Jena also posed a few questions for the founder, Shantanu Deshpande, and asked if he would enjoy being spammed “9 times in a day”. He also wondered if Deshpande has “personally instructed” his marketing team to keep spamming all the customers and if, as an entrepreneur, he “seriously feels that the revenue will be multiplied by spamming customers' inboxes repeatedly”. Jena hoped that the company would “take accountability” for making people's lives hell by bombarding them with numerous marketing messages. “Seriously, stop this,” he said. Netizens react: The post quickly struck a chord online, tapping into a collective exhaustion among millions of smartphone users who feel their personal chat spaces have been hijacked by corporate promotional engines. Several social media users flooded the comment section to share their experiences, and said, “They are bugging so much I decided not to buy.” “Honestly, not surprised to see this,” a PR professional said, claiming that he had a discussion with the BSC team some time ago and “it didn’t proceed because our ideologies didn’t match.

We recommended amplifying thought leadership (like all our clients), but it appears they preferred the agency which took them this route.” “Most brands are doing the same thing — Finance budha, paisa bazaar, handpckd, I am tired of blocking these brands,” said another user. “I just block and mark as spam anyone I don’t need. It’s pointless to call them out as they are not gonna stop … these or others,” an irritated user said. “This happens when you trust your Automations with Agentic AI or just a human error,” added another user. However, a netizen noted that the BSC founder had once mentioned that a large part of their revenue comes from WhatsApp and email. “Shantanu mentioned on a podcast that a large chunk of their revenue comes from WhatsApp and email.