[hardwired]

Binary tree nodes don't need Collections. Try this:

Code:

public class CustNodeTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String[] names = { "John", "Carol", "Sue", "Bill", "Alice" };
        int[] nums = { 1412, 3927, 1815, 2219, 1588 };
        CustNode root = null;
        for(int j = 0; j < names.length; j++) {
            root = addNode(root, names[j], nums[j]);
        }
        System.out.println(root.getInOrderSort());
    }

    private static CustNode addNode(CustNode node, String name, int n) {
        if(node == null)
            node = new CustNode(name, n);
        else if(name.compareTo(node.name) < 0)
             node.left = addNode(node.left, name, n);
        else
             node.right = addNode(node.right, name, n);
        return node;
    }
}

class CustNode {
    int telNo;
    String name;
    CustNode left;
    CustNode right;
//    Vector rentVid = new Vector();

    CustNode() {
        this("", 0);
    }

    CustNode(String name, int telNo) {
        this(name, telNo, null, null);
    }

    CustNode(String name, int telNo, CustNode left, CustNode right) {
        this.name  = name;
        this.telNo = telNo;
        this.left  = left;
        this.right = right;
    }

    public String toString() {
        return "CustNode[name:" + name +
                       " telNo:" + telNo + "]";
    }

    public String getInOrderSort() {
        String s = "";
        if(left != null)
            s += left.getInOrderSort() + " ";
        s += this + " ";
        if(right != null)
            s += right.getInOrderSort() + " ";
        return s;
    }
}