What is up with my skull candy headphones?

My brother was using them today on our family computer watching youtube videos which is typical after he finishes his school work. He comes to me saying they weren't working any more and explains that they wouldn't produce sound, and when it did, it only happened for a brief second. So I plugged them into my laptop and confirmed that they weren't playing any music and when they did it would be for a brief moment. As a secondary test I plugged in another pair of headphones (also skull candy) and they worked perfectly fine. I asked him if he did anything that would have damaged the headphones and he told me no. They aren't that old either being bought almost a month ago. So unless he's lying about damaging them I can only assume that they are defective but just wanted to come here and see if anyone has had the same issues. I can't remember the type of headphones but I believe they were the cheap kind. Any solutions are helpful thanks