A Bengaluru-based founder has called out Bombay Shaving Company for allegedly flooding his WhatsApp inbox with promotional messages, prompting a response and apology from the brand’s CEO, Shantanu Deshpande.Debajyoti Jena is the founder of The StartUp Circle. (LinkedIn/Debajyoti Jena)In a LinkedIn post, Debajyoti Jena, founder of The StartUp Circle, claimed that he had been “forced” to block 3 official Bombay Shaving Company WhatsApp accounts after receiving what he described as excessive marketing messages. “Literally forced me. I’m not joking,” Jena wrote in the post, alleging that the company sent him messages 3 times a day from 3 different business accounts, resulting in at least 9 messages daily. He also shared screenshots as proof of the messaging activity.Tagging Bombay Shaving Company founder and CEO Shantanu Deshpande, Jena questioned whether such repeated outreach was a deliberate strategy. “Would you (Shantanu Deshpande) really enjoy if Bombay Shaving Company keeps spamming your Inbox - 9 times in a day ? Have you (Shantanu Deshpande) personally instructed your marketing team to keep spamming all of your customers ? As an entrepreneur Do you (Shantanu Deshpande) seriously feel that your revenue will be multiplied by spamming customers inbox repeatedly ???” Jena wrote.The founder tagged several members of the company’s management team and urged the brand to stop “bombarding numerous marketing messages.” “I am sure you all will take accountability of this activity of Bombay Shaving Company for making peoples life hell by bombarding numerous marketing messages. Seriously stop this. Screenshot is attached for proof,” he wrote.Jena further said that he rarely posts criticism of entrepreneurs or brands, but added that the repeated notifications were “annoying and disgusting” and urged companies to rethink their outreach practices.Shantanu Deshpande respondsResponding in the comments section, Shantanu Deshpande acknowledged the issue and apologised for the experience.“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,” he wrote.(Also Read: Bengaluru man slams apartment management committee for enforcing ‘boomer rules’)How did social media react?The post sparked reactions from users, many of whom shared similar experiences with marketing messages from brands.One user wrote, “They are bugging so much I decided not to buy.”“Most brands are doing the same thing — Finance budha, paisa bazaar, handpckd, I am tired of blocking these brands,” commented another.“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,” wrote a third user.“Same here.Every day,with every spam message, I regret the day I ordered something from them,” commented one user.