I don't have an answer to the question you asked. I haven't used Spreadsheet::ParseExcel in a long time, and even then the only frill I used was a custom CellHandler

I see you are using Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::SaveParser.

Are you modifying the spreadsheet? If so, could there be a problem related to your updates to the spreadsheet?

If you are only reading the spreadsheet, why don't you create the parser via Spreadsheet::ParseExcel->new()?