Why was I not asked to convert currency when receiving a payment?

[stormblaze]

So I offer artwork commissions internationally and have never had problems with paypal payments. Whenever I am sent payments in currencies other than GBP (my home currency), I always recieve an email prompt and message on my account asking if I would like to accept the payment in the currecny it is sent (usually USD) or to convert it into GBP, which is what I always choose. 

Today however, the USD payment went straight through to my account, no prompt or conversion questions and now it's stuck as seperate USD balance and I cannot withdraw the USD money, even though the total says its merged the two balances together. 

I have looked up several threads and help posts with converting my balance, but its all out of date and paypal have removed all options to do so or return to the old site layout. 

I am in the process of asking the client if I can refund the payment and they send it again so that I see the payment come in and hope that the conversion prompt comes in this time, but if it does not happen, then I am stuck with USD money that I cannot use. 

I have a UK bank account/card linked to my account and cannot withdraw the USD amount. 

Any help is apprcieated or knowing that others have had this issue would be nice to know about. Maybe paypal could fix this.... doubtful. I'm hoping refunding and re-sending will work.