ViewModel links binding not working

Hi, I am trying to bind a 'User' model to a form view when somebody clicks an actioncolumn button in a grid. I am trying to use links + reference config in ViewModel:

Code:

onEditUser: function (id) {
        if (this.getView()) {
            this.getView().removeAll();
            this.getView().add(Ext.create('GE.view.user.UserDetailView', {
                links: {
                    theUser: {
                        reference: 'GE.model.user.User',
                        id: id
                }
            }));
        }
    },

User model:

Code:

Ext.define('GE.model.user.User', {
    extend: 'GE.model.Base',
    idProperty: 'id',
    fields: [
        'firstName',
        'lastName',
        {
            name: 'name', convert: function (value, record) {
                return record.get('firstName') + ' ' + record.get('lastName');
            }
        },
        'username',
        'password',
        'email',
        'phone'
    ],
    proxy: {
        url: '/user'
    }
});

This does not work. It issues a request to fetch user with given id, but the binding never happens.

Moreover, the following piece of code (which I found in ViewModel jsdoc) does not work, the callbacks never get called eventhough requests are made to server to fetch users with id 1 and 2.

Code:

 var rec = new GE.model.user.User({
                id: 2,
                firstName: 'Ned',
                lastName: 'Stark'
            });
            var viewModel = Ext.create('Ext.app.ViewModel', {
                session: new Ext.data.Session(),
                links: {
                    theUser: {
                        reference: 'GE.model.user.User',
                        id: 1
                    },
                    otherUser: rec
                }
            });


            viewModel.bind('{theUser.firstName}', function(v) {
                console.log(v);
            });
            viewModel.bind('{otherUser.firstName}', function(v) {
                console.log(v);
            });

Off course, if i try to manually load the record by id and bind it to ViewModel, everything works as expected.

I've also tried using all kinds of session configs (session: new Ext.data.Session(), session: true, without session) on views (parent or only detail) with no success.

I also have to mention i've tried using both extjs-5.0.0.736 and extjs-5.0.0.970, the latter being commercial version.

Thanks,

Marius