The product worked. The router didn't.

The devices connect over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, which is ordinary for the category and invisible to most buyers. Modern routers broadcast both bands under one network name, so the phone doing the setup is usually on 5GHz, the pairing fails, and the customer concludes the product is broken.

That failure was producing 61% of the brand's one-star reviews and most of its returns. The support team had a reliable fix and used it dozens of times a week, but by the time someone contacts support they have already been frustrated for twenty minutes, and a good number never contact anyone — they return the device and write the review on the way. A 3.8 rating on a product with no defect rate to speak of is an expensive way to discover that setup is part of the product.

We moved the fix to before the purchase instead of after the failure.

• The network requirement stated on the listing — an image frame and a bullet, phrased as a one-line router check rather than as a technical caveat.
• A two-minute setup walkthrough in the image stack and A+, including the band-separation step that support was explaining by phone.
• The fix pinned in the Q&A, which is the one public place a seller can answer, so a shopper who lands from a bad review finds it on the same screen.
• Post-purchase sequencing — the packaging insert and first-run app screen rewritten around the same check, so the moment of failure has the answer next to it.

Setup failures fell from 61% of negative reviews to 11%, the rating climbed from 3.8 to 4.3, and revenue grew 74%.

Nothing about the hardware changed. What changed is that a shopper now learns about the requirement while they are curious rather than while they are angry, and a two-line check in the listing prevents a failure that used to cost a return, a review and a support call at once.