jasmine no pending request to flush POST

so I have the following test in jasmine:

    $httpBackend.whenPOST('/api/userdata/saveuser').respond({ 'result': 'true' })

it('should save the new or updated user', function () {
        var controller = createController();
        $httpBackend.flush();
        spyOn(controller, 'saveUser');

        controller.saveUser();
        $httpBackend.flush();
        expect(controller.saveUser).toHaveBeenCalled();
    })

When I go to perform the FLUSH after the saveUser I get the famous 'no pending requests to flush'. The controller function looks like the following:

  user.saveUser = function () {
          userDataService.saveUser(user.data).then(function (result) {
             $state.go("license", { guid: user.data.user.account });
        });
    };

Of course notice that I am not using $scope anywhere in my controller.

Don't get it!! I tried to put some console.log statements in the controller to see if it was hitting it... and I don't see it going into the procedure. YET the expect(controller.saveUser).toHaveBeenCalled() is successful.

Here is the dataservice:

function saveUser(user) {
            return $http.post("/api/userdata/saveuser", user.data).success(returndata).error(returnerror)
        };

UGGH Why is this happening????