field_get_items('user', $user, 'field_name') empty?

I have a added data to the user using:

taxonomy_term_reference

when creating the

field_create_instance($instance)

and everything is working fine, I can add and store values and these are added to the specified vocabulary.

The problem is, I cannot extract the value added as a term to the $user object using field_get_items and field_view_value since field_get_items('user', $user, 'field_name') is empty.

Is field_get_items and field_view_value not applicable to $user?

Code example:

hook_install

function _customers_fields() {
  return array(
    'phone' => array('text', 'text_field'),
    'contact' => array('text', 'text_field'),
    'city' => array('text', 'text_field'),
    'postalcode' => array('text', 'text_field'),
    'address' => array('text', 'text_field'),
    'company' => array('taxonomy_term_reference', 'taxonomy_autocomplete'),
  );
}

function customers_install() {
  # Here we install the role
  $roles = _customers_roles();

  foreach ($roles as $role) {
    if (!user_role_load_by_name($role)) {
      $item = (object) array('name' => $role);
      
      user_role_save($item);

      watchdog('Customers Module', 'Role '. $role .' being created');
    }
  }
  # TODO: Term reference to location
  $fields = _customers_fields();

  foreach ($fields as $name => $type) {
    if (!field_info_field($name)) {
      $field = array(
        'field_name' => $name,
        'type' => $type[0]
      );

      field_create_field($field);

      watchdog('Customers Module', 'Field '. $name .' being created');

      $instance = array(
        'field_name' => $name,
        'entity_type' => 'user',
        'label' => t('Customer '. ucfirst($name)),
        'bundle' => 'user',
        'required' => FALSE,
        'settings' => array(
          'user_register_form' => TRUE
        ),
        'widget' => array(
          'type' => $type[1]
        )
      );

      field_create_instance($instance);

      watchdog('Customers', 'Instance '. $name .' being created');
    }
  }
}

?>

and then inside different module

$company = field_get_items('user', $user, 'company');

debug($company, null, true);

is empty. I can add, edit and view the "company" term using /admin