Vugen 11.52 Firefox TruClient: evalXPath issue

I'm having an issue with TruClient under Vugen 11.52 identifying an object using JavaScript ID method and evalXPath.

I have a link that I need to identify and select based on a parameter - it's the name of a specific customer.

I assign the parameter name to a variable at the beginning of my TruClient script when I assign all my variables...

var custName = LR.getParam('Customer Name');

 ...and then I attempt to use it to identify and click on the object by setting ID Method to JavaScript and using the following statement:

evalXPath("//a[text()=\"" + custName + "\"]")

 ...which fails to identify the correct object on the page. However, the following evalXPath statement works just fine every time:

evalXPath("//a[text()=\"John Smith\"]");

When generate an alert box to show the XPath statement I'm building that's not working, it's identical to the one that is working.
 

I'd ask my 13-year-old what I'm doing wrong, but he's not handy at the moment. Help?