Kendo UI grid Create action passes null reference from WCF service - grid

Question

I am struggling calling a create action through a WCF service from a kendo ui grid.When the odataservice calls the business logic controller to write the record it passes a null reference....the customer object is populated up until the call to the business logic CreateEntity method. I originally thought this was because of the content type but I am having my doubts now. Accessing the WCF service directly with fiddler successfully creates the record...
Kendo Grid:
Here is the application level Customer_Create action being called by the kendo grid
#(Html.Kendo().Grid<Application.ServiceProxy.CustomerDTO>()
.Name("grid")
.Columns(columns =>
{
columns.Bound(c => c.salesOrganizationID).Width(15).Title("sales org");
columns.Bound(c => c.customerID).Width(20).Groupable(false);
columns.Bound(c => c.name1).Width(25).Title("name");
columns.Bound(c => c.city).Width(15).Title("city");
columns.Bound(c => c.stateCode).Width(10).Title("state");
columns.Bound(c => c.countryCode).Width(15).Title("country");
columns.Bound(c => c.matchcode).Width(25).Title("matchcode");
columns.Command(command => { command.Edit(); command.Destroy(); }).Width(35);
//Add program type here CMI, VMI etc..
//columns.Width(25).Title("program");
})
.ToolBar(toolbar => toolbar.Create())
.Editable(ed => ed.Mode(GridEditMode.PopUp).Window(w => w.Title("Edit Customer Details").Name("editWindow").HtmlAttributes(new { #style = "width:700px;" })))
.Pageable()
.Sortable()
.Groupable()
.Scrollable()
.Filterable()
.HtmlAttributes(new { style = "height:420px;" })
.DataSource(dataSource => dataSource
.Ajax()
.PageSize(20)
.ServerOperation(true)
.Events(events => events.Error("error_handler"))
.Model(model => model.Id(c => c.customerID))
.Create(update => update.Action("Customer_Create", "Customer"))
.Read(read => read.Action("Customer_Read", "Customer"))
.Update(update => update.Action("Customer_Update", "Customer"))
.Destroy(update => update.Action("Customer_Delete", "Customer"))
)
)
Here is the application level Customer_Create action being called by the kendo grid
[System.Web.Http.HttpPost]
public ActionResult Customer_Create([DataSourceRequest] DataSourceRequest request, Application.ServiceProxy.CustomerDTO customer)
{
if (customer != null && ModelState.IsValid)
{
var odataService = new Container(new Uri("http://localhost:8089/odata/"));
//odataService.r
odataService.AddToCustomer(customer);
odataService.SaveChanges();
return Json(ModelState.ToDataSourceResult());
}
return View("Index");
}
Here is the CreateEntity method being called through the generated WCF data service.
protected override CustomerDTO CreateEntity(CustomerDTO customerDTO)
{
var customer = new customer()
{
matchcode = customerDTO.matchcode,
salesOrganizationID = customerDTO.salesOrganizationID,
statusID = customerDTO.statusID,
serviceLevelStatusID = customerDTO.serviceLevelStatusID,
mediaIDLogo = customerDTO.mediaIDLogo,
systemID = customerDTO.systemID,
customerExternalSystemID = customerDTO.customerExternalSystemID,
internationalGroup = customerDTO.internationalGroup,
division = customerDTO.division,
corporateID = customerDTO.corporateID,
inventoryManagerID = customerDTO.inventoryManagerID,
dunsNumber = customerDTO.dunsNumber
};
entity.customer.Add(customer);
entity.SaveChanges();
return GetEntityByKey(customer.customerID);
}