Not connecting as advertised

This has been bothering me for a while so I thought I would ask around.

When I first got my AirPods (5 or so months ago) they would connect as advertised(1) just fine. Now for the past month or so the status menu pops up from my iPad/iPhone but they don’t connect when I put them in my ears 95% of the time. I tried deleting them from both my iPad and iPhone but still the status menu pops up but they don’t connect after re-adding them.

I tried taking them into an Apple Store and they tried to “trade in” my AirPods for new ones. I declined that offer because they wanted to make me pay 50$ for trading the old ones in for a new pair.

Ideas?

(1) Hold the charging case with the AirPods in the case about <2 inches to your iDevice. Open the case and put the AirPods in your ears. They should be connected to your phone now.

I spoke to Apple Support again last night, they wanted to “send it in for a checkup"" but this time they wanted 3/4 the worth of my AirPods as a down payment. I aint paying that to send them in and then have to pay that ransom.