well, talking about servicing the phone... if it is hardware problem, some shop offer 1 to 1 exchange within 14days for china phone & 1 year warranty (where the shop will help you to send to china). I dont see there is a major issue on this. Branded such as Samseng phones, although the service center is near by, do you ever go and check on their center? you will be shocked seeing so much of Samseng phones owner sending the phones for servicing.... this means the QC also not as good as we thought. myself the tab2 & note I also go to see the 'doctors' few times....
so, how reliable is those branded phone? to my own experience... is more or less the same...

if talking about software issue... well... xda forum is there for you.... you can always flash by ur own....
talking about resale value... its the same thing like Japs car & Korean car in malaysia.
you use HIGH price to buy Japs car of cos your resale value is HIGH also when u sale it.
but in fact you can buy a Korean car (with same spec or even better!!) with lower price, then of cos the resale value is lower. Its the mathematic games only... just that Malaysian dont want to accept the concept.

This Zp980 is my 1st china phone, overall, i will said that the built quality is very good for a <rm1k phone. but to my surprise, by right this ZP980 (16gb version) is rated at USD 350 (pls check on its official website or ebay), but in Malaysia just RM900 - RM950 (depends on which seller).
It really worth every bucks you spent and not overprice.