Seems that around the time Samsung got really big in the phone world (Galaxy S2?), Samsung has been seen as a top tier brand
While their products are generally pretty good across the many categories they are in, not the Apple level they seem to strive for, but still generally pretty good, their customer service is usually bad. I've had the pleasure of dealing with Samsung support across phones, electronics, IT hardware, etc. and every time its below average at best. Frankly, they are behind many smaller/cheaper brands in this regard and below the expectations that most consumers have these days.
Yet they still seem to have a strong reputation, and get away with charging the associated higher prices.
is it just me who finds them really not worthy of the reputation they have? Am I missing something?
It's probably more to do with local Australian market. Even Sony appear to have relatively poor customer service here. But it's certainly not the case in other markets where they gather most of their reputation.
With Sony, HTC and LG out of the mobile phone running, Samsung is really the only global flagship Android maker on the market to attempt to compete with iPhones (except Pixel line maybe). They do throw a lot of freebies and offers in to entice people which devalues used prices but still considered top go-to. The Chinese are catching up for sure though.