I suspect there is a generational component here. When phone is the only way to reach someone the same day, and written communication takes 2 days or a lot of money to get there, of course you talk on the phone! And you get used to having that sort of instant response from people, and no one is bothered too much because that's the only way. But now, we have email, chat, and text to send each other written messages, instantly. This leaves a record, doesn't interrupt someone's workflow, and lets them research and think through the answer before sending it to you. So unless it's absolutely urgent or has a significant emotional component where tone might be important (hard to imagine that in a business setting...), we actually consider it RUDE to make it a cold phone call or meeting unnecessarily. If you'd really rather talk in person, maybe for something with lots of back and forth, send a message and ask when a good time is. And of course, if it's urgent but didn't have to be, then that's an example of poor work ethic and time management on the *caller's* part...it happens, of course, but if it happens too often you have a character flaw to work on.
I do make phone calls when I need to. It can be very helpful at times and is a good skill to have. But it has its downsides. It can be hard to understand each other, especially if someone has an accent, which is increasingly common in a globalized economy (and before you judge people with accents, think about how well you speak THEIR language). Written communication is also much easier for someone with limited skills in a language to handle. And even without such considerations--language, or at least English, can be ambiguous. This morning my bf was talking to me about "this kettle your parents ad" where I kept trying to figure out what I misheard as "kettle" when actually I had misheard "had" as "ad" (the kettle was on sale). The other day we were separating in the grocery store and he suggested "meat 'n veggies" which might sound reasonable for a grocery store but we were talking about how he would get beer and bread and I would get salad greens. Turns out he was suggesting we MEET in veggies, i.e. the produce department at the front. As for phone conversations, spelling my name is always a "fun" experience. Depending on the connection quality, giving a phone number, model number, policy number, account number, or address can also be fun. Main Street and Washington Rd are pretty straightforward but Thirteenth can easily be mistaken for Thirtieth, and that doesn't even touch on the less common names.
Phone calls have their place. But they aren't 100% better or a complete reflection of someone's communication skills. Maybe that person you wrote off can assemble an awesome report.
