Teresa and I signed up for DirecTV a few years ago so we could get a real TiVo. To this day, we love it. That said, we're trying to cut down some channels to keep our costs down, so we've been looking at both Dish Network and DirecTV's bottom offerings. (The family packs don't include the Discovery Channel, and I'm a big Mythbusters fan.)

So last night, I called a Dish affiliate to ask whether their DVR was available with their Top 100 pack. He answered my question (Yes.), and I bid him a good night.

This evening, my cell phone rang, but since I was driving at the time, I handed it to Teresa to answer it. It was the Dish affiliate I'd talked to last night. He'd noted our Caller ID and decided to essentially "*69" us.

OK, that alone annoyed me. We don't like unsolicited phone calls, especially on a cell phone. Of course, they didn't know it was a mobile line, but we're also on the national Do Not Call list.

So Teresa, patient as she is, listened to his spiel, and then she told him that we're not ready to buy yet, and that she'd have to talk to her husband about it. He actually had the nerve to try to talk her into making that decision without talking it over with me!

About this time, I was pulling into the garage, so once I'd parked the car, I took the phone and firmly-but-courteously informed him that my wife's loyalties lie with me, not a telemarketer, and that I would also appreciate him not calling my cell phone, bid him a good night, and hung up my phone.

Now, it's important that I note that this was not a Dish Network corporate representative and should not reflect on their company. This was simply one of their affiliates. If we dodecide to go with Dish, you can bet we'll go with a different affiliate. But you can bet that we'll start blocking Caller ID when we call commission-based businesses from now on.

This has happened to us one other time, maybe 8 to 10 years ago. I was at work, and Teresa was at home. MCI called her (These were the days before the Do Not Call list.) and tried to convince her to switch long distance carriers without discussing it with me. "Do you ask your husband what kind of flour to buy at the grocery store?" (Yes, he actually said that.) When they called back that evening, they got a similar firm-but-courteous farewell. Yes, that was almost a decade ago, and I'm still astonished by it. This was actually a corporate representative, not just some overzealous affiliate, so I'd expect that the corporation would have rules against antagonizing the potential customer's spouse.

So husbands, love your wives, or you may just come home one day and find your TiVo has been replaced.