Showing selected item in a Dropdownlist by FindByValue

I have a bunch of dropdowns in a gridview and I populate them through a datasource.
On the databound event i need to change the selected item  to the actual selected value from db.

e.Row.Cells(3).HorizontalAlign = HorizontalAlign.Left Dim ddl As DropDownList = CType(e.Row.FindControl("ddProfileResponses"), DropDownList) Dim QuestionID As String = CType(e.Row.FindControl("QuestionID"), Label).Text Dim UserResponse As String = db.GetUserResponse(QuestionID, Userid) Dim itm As ListItem = ddl.Items.FindByValue(CStr(UserResponse)) itm.Selected = True
The UserResponse value is always populated correctly.
I can find the item by watching each item in the debugger.
so the item that I want to select does infact exist in the DropDownList
The FindByValue simply does not return the item
I'm scratching my head here. Any help would be ...