The Lost Art of the Phone Call

I recently took a part time job that required me to use an app that didn't seem user friendly. I called the office for support and someone got back to me through an email, then communication just stopped. A three minute phone call could have cleared everything up, but instead it was drawn out over days to start and stop messages and texts. Emails cetaonly have their place over calls, but I do love the immediacy of the call, the sound of the voice, the reassurance of staying on the line until the matter is fixed. Perhaps businesses find calls intrusive, but as a customer I do business with businesses to make my life better, not theirs. It is frustrating to call only to have a prerecorded message come on to prompt you to push a number for a particular office after listening to a commercial in the beginning. Then there are call centers based in non English speaking countries. You would think a prereqi=uisite for hiring operators would be a working knowlege of English serving the American market. But why should businesses accomodate their customers? That's old fashioned when businesses had a bank of operators to direct customers to the right person, and every office had a live receptionist to greet each caller in a pleasant tone. But perhaps that is just a quaint idea now.