I thought I found the perfect cheap ski helmet headphones — but they let me down at the worst possible time

This is a confusing take. You admit the headphones worked satisfactory on the first use. The second use, which it doesn't sound like can be fully cleared of user error, they wouldn't turn on and you question battery issues. Then they take a charge, test out fine, yet you never use them again?

I've had these headphones going on three seasons now. Used them paired with just as many Android phones as well as two different Garmin watches. Outside of some (infrequent) initial connections quirks I have no remorse. Should they fail tomorrow, I'll be picking up a second pair.