Initial wi-fi setup

i have been working on it for 1 hour and tried resetting the controller multiple time without luck.
it comes up with just the first light white.
the app can see the controller, see my wi-fi and tries to configure the controller to my wi-fi but it fails. tried multiple tomes.

same thing just connecting to the Rachio wifi directly.

the controller was a returned item on Amazon so somebody has probably tried to install before.
i suspect some hard reset is need as there may be previous info saved somewhere

suggestions?

When you say “reset the controller”, is that pressing and holding the WiFi button? If someone had set it up previously, that is supposed to clear out the network data.