OT xls2csv date problem?

[Dave Burns]

When I use xls2csv (part of catdoc package) it can't handle dates. -f
switch is supposed to help, but does nothing, results are identical
with/without it.

xls2csv -f  +%m/%d/%y Desktop/list.xls 2>/dev/null|head
"updated as of:  09/25/08",,,,,,,,,
,"Name","Status","Host / Supervisor","Funding","Location",,"Start
Date","End Date","Admin staff"
,,,,,,,,,
"new","persong","Long-term Visitor","B. Wg","pending acct
#","PST","49R","39739","40086","Aee"

(2nd and 3rd to last fields are dates above)

wiki, faq, and bug-tracking system for this utility all on a Russian
site with weird certs that make me nervous, so I am asking here.
Anyone know how to make this work?

I pipe errors to /dev/null because it blats out many of these:

Format a4 is redefined

Thanks,
Dave