I've just looked at the Virgin Media site and apart from the obvious fact that Virgin can do whatever they feel like doing, have they supplied an even half decent reason as to why they are screwing existing customers £75 for installing V+ as opposed to free installation for new customers. I really had to do a second take when I read this - as a totally cynical exploitation of existing customers, it must take some beating and I'd say that it tells us a great deal about what we can expect in future from Virgin.
Now, methods of getting round it. I see that the often effective method of
telling them to get lost can still work. Alternatively, what is to stop you either:
1) Waiting until the end of your contract, dropping it, then signing on as a new customer. I assume that this would have the downside of having to stop the broadband and phone connections at the same time.
2) Retaining the STB in another room, getting the free installation, then cancelling the STB - does this have a separate 12 month contract (which, 12 times 5 being 60, would still be cheaper).