I also sigh when Countryside are on the other side of a transaction. It seems as though you cannot get through to one particular person, they don't answer emails or even acknowledge them and trying to get updates is almost impossible.
I work in conveyancing and am currently furloughed. I agree that my firm does seem to be taking advantage of the system - one of the reasons for that is that during February, March, April and May, we didn't have as many completions as normal (and therefore be paid our fees) and also, we haven't received as many new instructions as we normally do.
Quite a few transactions have been aborted and, because we run a no completion, no fee scheme, we earned nothing from those transactions for which a considerable amount of work had already been done.
The firm cannot afford to pay a lot of their employees because of the reduced income/profit they've received, so the furlough scheme has helped them keep us as employees to be brought back into work as and when the firm's income can support it. Don't ask me why they didn't have enough funds in reserve, but it seems they are trying to convey the message that if the furlough scheme had not been introduced, all furloughed staff would have lost their jobs permanently, which of course would not help our clients and our reputation.
I think my firm will start a graduated return as and when the workload increases and completions are on the rise, but it's a very slow recovery at the moment.