Hahaha, like "using the phone" means "talking to a human", that's a good one.

Using the phone means

1. Listening to a long list of automated selections, none of which are ever useful (pretty much information more easily available over the Internet). 2. Getting placed on hold for tens of minutes or an hour or more. 3. Talking to someone who will ignore your question and ask if you have tried some obvious or irrelevant option. 4. Forwarded to someone else who might be able to help you with your problem. 5. Maybe getting cut off, needing to start the entire process over again from the beginning.

In short, without massive increases in staffing and training, using the phone for customer support is almost always worse than an equivalent text, web, or email based solution.

The article went into even more detail about these shortcomings than I did, by the way.