Thus, for some reason the data is not imported properly, and the valid information like P.M. at the end actually vanished.

I believe, that the Excel file was created or modified by user and therefore probably contains some specific formatting; and the import process cannot handle this formatting properly.

Just to make sure that it is the case, try this.
- In Excel highlight the entire sheet contents
- Copy
- create a new Excel Sheet or file
- Paste SPECIAL VALUE ONLY
- import from the new sheet to VFP

Let me know, what you see.

>That returns...
>12/20/99 09:0