- A Bengaluru entrepreneur criticized Bombay Shaving Company for excessive WhatsApp promotions
- He blocked three official accounts due to receiving at least nine messages daily from them
- The complaint was shared on LinkedIn, tagging the CEO and management team for accountability
A Bengaluru-based entrepreneur has criticised Bombay Shaving Company over what he described as excessive promotional messages on WhatsApp. The complaint gained attention on LinkedIn and prompted a public apology from the company's founder and CEO, Shantanu Deshpande.
In a LinkedIn post, Debajyoti Jena, founder of The StartUp Circle, claimed that he had been forced to block three official Bombay Shaving Company WhatsApp accounts because of the volume of marketing messages he was receiving.
Jena said he was "literally forced" to block the accounts and added that he was not joking. He alleged that the company sent him messages three times a day from three different business accounts, resulting in at least nine messages every day. He also shared screenshots as proof of the messaging activity.
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Tagging Bombay Shaving Company founder and CEO Shantanu Deshpande, Jena questioned whether such repeated outreach was a deliberate strategy. He asked whether Deshpande would enjoy receiving nine promotional messages a day from Bombay Shaving Company, whether he had personally instructed the marketing team to keep sending such messages to customers, and whether he seriously believed that repeatedly spamming customers' inboxes would increase the company's revenue.
Jena also tagged several members of the company's management team and urged the brand to stop sending numerous marketing messages. He said he was sure the team would take accountability for making people's lives difficult by bombarding them with promotional messages and asked the company to stop. He added that he had attached screenshots as proof.
The founder further said that he rarely posts criticism of entrepreneurs or brands, but described the repeated notifications as "annoying and disgusting." He also urged companies to rethink their customer outreach practices.
Responding in the comments section, Shantanu Deshpande acknowledged the issue and apologised for the experience. He wrote, "Should not have happened honestly. Apologies for this. We're trying to balance meaningful outreach without annoying customers. Will do better, so sorry for this experience"
