Bombay Shaving Company spams customer '3 times a day, minimum 9 msgs' — Founder Shantanu Deshpande responds

“It literally forced me. I’m not kidding,” said an exasperated customer in an open letter to Bombay Shaving Company founder Shantanu Deshpande on LinkedIn. The complaint wasn’t about a faulty razor or late delivery, but about a box under siege.

The customer, Debajyoti Jena, founder of The StartUp Circle, claimed that the caring brand hacked his personal WhatsApp number “3 times a day – from 3 different official company WhatsApp accounts – at least 9 messages per day”.

Jena, who said he has “admired Shantanu Deshpande’s work” for years, noted that he doesn’t write any negative posts about entrepreneurs or brands, “but it was really annoying and disgusting to get repeated notifications and spam from a brand a day.”

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In a viral LinkedIn post, Jena said Bombay Shaving Company “forced” him to block three of their official business WhatsApp accounts – “She literally forced me. I’m not kidding.”

Jena also posed a few questions to the founder, Shantan Deshpande, asking if he would enjoy being spammed “9 times a day”.

He also wondered whether Deshpande had “personally ordered” his marketing team to continue spamming all customers and whether, as a businessman, he “seriously felt that revenue would multiply by repeatedly spamming customers’ email inboxes”.

Jena hoped that the company would “take responsibility” for making people’s lives hell by bombarding them with numerous marketing messages. “Seriously, stop it,” he said.

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Netizens react:

The post quickly struck a chord online, tapping into the collective exhaustion among millions of smartphone users who feel their personal chat spaces have been hijacked by corporate promotional tools.

Several social media users flooded the comments section to share their experiences, saying: “They are so annoying that I decided not to buy.”

“Honestly, I’m not surprised to see that,” said the PR professional, claiming he had a discussion with the BSC team some time ago and “it didn’t go ahead because our ideologies didn’t match. We recommended strengthening the thought leadership (as do all our clients), but it seems they preferred the agency that took them down that path.”

“Most brands are doing the same – Finance buddha, paisa bazaar, handpckd, I’m sick of blocking these brands,” said another user.

“I just block and spam anyone I don’t need. It’s pointless to call them because it won’t stop… you or others,” said an exasperated user.

“This is what happens when you trust your automations with Agent AI or just human error,” another user added.

However, a netizen noted that the founder of BSC once mentioned that a large part of their income comes from WhatsApp and email. “Shantanu mentioned on the podcast that a lot of their revenue comes from WhatsApp and email. So I think it’s part of a broader strategy that he agrees with.”

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How did Shantanu Deshpande answer?

Shantanu Deshpande responded to a viral LinkedIn post and apologized for the spam. He said his company, Bombay Shaving Company, is “trying to balance meaningful outreach.”

“It shouldn’t have happened honestly … we apologize for that … we’re trying to balance meaningful outreach without annoying customers,” he said. “It will get better, so I’m sorry for this experience.”