Headphones are so much worse.
The wires probably just shorted or something. There probably isn't much you can do depending on the design of it.
The right side of my headset got forgeted up.Luckily, it was six bucks so I can get another one. It actually lasted me nearly a year.http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6217Damn, it went up 59 cents since last year.