got stuck on the "Select Your Language" screen during installation

I was doing a self setup of a flex streaming set top TV box and after it powers up I get stuck on the "Select Your Language" screen where the remote did not allow me to actually select my language.  The remote doesn't seem to do anything with this TV.

I went back to the Xfinity store and swapped my box/ remote, but that did not fix it.  Then I called the technical support and they did not know how to help me!  They scheduled a visit by a field technician .  But after searching Internet about how to fix a remote XR15 connection, I found that I had to reset my remotw.  I had to pressing two buttons simultanously for 5 seconds (buttons A and D), then I had press  9, 8, 1 to reset the remote.  Once I did this, the remote started to work!

Is this normal?  Why I could not make two boxes from Infinity work and I had to do my own research to fix this !?