Deliveries: Why we need the Telephone Number....

You'll have to excuse my primitive sketch above, but it was the simplest way to illustrate why deliveries can be difficult.  The house in the middle, which faces B Circle, has an address of 400 B Street.  The Driveway and House number, access to the house is on A Street.  So when our delivery person is attempting delivery, they would not be able to see the house number from B Street and come to the conclusion the house number doesn't exist.  This is why we need the phone number for the intended recipient for every delivery.  We aren't trying to "spoil the surprise".  We do not reveal the sender when we call, and so the delivery remains a surprise. 
Even if you think the person receiving the flowers is home sick in bed, you'd be surprised how often they are NOT home when we try to deliver.  (Maybe out on a medicine run to the pharmacy?)
Having the ability to call first helps us to better schedule deliveries  to various areas, make sure we find the recipient at home and that they receive the flowers. 
Deliveries become even more difficult in some parts of the county with unmarked driveways, unpaved roads, unmarked houses, etc.  Today my delivery person encountered huge rocks and a stream running across a "road" in Frederick county.  If we can communicate with the recipient, they may be able to give us better directions to their home, and warnings if there is a bridge/ road closure, or possibly even an overly-friendly St. Bernard on the premises.
A cell and house phone number is preferred, especially the cell phone.  I cannot count the number of times we have called and called a home number, got the answering machine, left messages, only to have no response.  Once we get the cell number, we call and find out the person has been home all day!  No one checks their home answering machine anymore.  Pretty much everyone has a cell phone and it is with them throughout the day.
This also goes for the sender....When we ask for a phone number where you can be reached, if you are not home and are at work, please give us the work number.  If we have any questions about your order and can't get ahold of you, your order will not be processed until we can get that answer. 
And one last example of the wonderful world of rural deliveries: