Siri does not work when talking directly to phone

Hi Apple community! Hope you all had a great couple of holidays. I have been plagued with an issue thats beginning to drive me nuts. When I use Siri, like many of the Apple commercials have shown (holding down home button, she activates, I talk to the phone, get answers, win the internet), my Siri times out. In fact, the wavy line that shows she is listening/recording my question never moves. It simply times out.

I CAN however use it perfectly IF, and only IF I have a headset w/mic [read: earpods] plugged in. I have only tried the Apple EarPods, but assume all other headsets with inline mic work also (provided they are iPhone compatible).

Any suggestions out there? I just went into Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings.. No luck

Turned Siri Off, turned her back on. Reset Phone. Turned Siri Off, reset phone, turned Siri back on. No Luck. :(