>  Phone Won't Stop Ringing?
>  Here's What You Do
> 
>      Leola Starling of Ribrock, Tenn., had a serious
>      telephone problem.  But unlike most people she did
>      something about it.
> 
>      The brand-new $10 million Ribrock Plaza Motel
>      opened nearby and had acquired almost the same telephone
>      number as Leola.
> 
>      From the moment the motel opened, Leola was
>      besieged by calls not for her. Since she had the same phone
>      number for years, she felt that she had a case to persuade
>      the motel management to change its number.
> 
>      Naturally, the management refused claiming that it
>      could not change its stationery.
> 
>      The phone company was not helpful, either. A number
>      was a number, and just because a customer was getting someone
>      else's calls 24 hours a day didn't make it responsible. After
>      her pleas fell on deaf ears, Leola decided to take matters into
>      her own hands.
> 
>      At 9 o'clock the phone rang. Someone from Memphis
>      was calling the motel and asked for a room for the following
>      Tuesday. Leoloa said, "No problem.  How many nights?"
> 
>      A few hours later Dallas checked in. A secretary
>      wanted a suite with two bedrooms for a week. Emboldened,
>      Leola said the Presidential Suite on the 10th floor was available
>      for $600 a night. The secretary said that she would take it and
> asked
>      if the hotel wanted a deposit.  "No, that won't be necessary,"
> Leola
>      said. "We trust you."
> 
>      The next day was a busy one for Leola. In the morning,
>      she booked an electric appliance manufacturers' convention for
>      Memorial Day weekend, a college prom and a reunion of the 82nd
>      Airborne veterans from World War II.
> 
>      She turned on her answering machine during lunchtime so that she
>      could watch the O.J. Simpson trial, but her biggest challenge
> came
>      in the afternoon when a mother called to book the ballroom for
> her
>      daughter's wedding in June.
> 
>      Leola assured the woman that it would be no problem and asked if
>     she would be providing the flowers or did she want the hotel to
> take
>     care of it. The mother said that she would prefer the hotel to
> handle
>     the floral arrangements. Then the question of valet parking came
> up.
> 
>     Once again Leola was helpful. "There's no charge for valet
> 
>     parking, but we always recomend that the client tips the drivers."
> 
>      Within a few months, the Ribrock Plaza Motel was a disaster area.
> 
>      People kept showing up for weddings, bar mitzvahs, and Sweet
>     Sixteen parties and were all told there were no such events.
> 
      Leola had her final revenge when she read in the local paper that
> the
>      motel might go bankrupt. Her phone rang, and an executive from
>      Marriott said, "We're prepared to offer you $200,000 for the
> motel."
> 
>      Leola replied. "We'll take it, but only if you change the
> telephone
>      number."
>