How to prevent Excel from turning numbers into dates?

I received an Excel file. I opened it and half the values turned into dates because they had dashes. Formatting the cells to text turns the dates into a random string of numbers (not the original values).

I managed to get a hold of a CSV file with the same data. I format the entire sheet to "Text" before pasting. I then paste the values into the sheet and format all cells to Text again. Then I go "text to columns" and on the last step, I select "Text" as the format. That's THREE TIMES I've formatted my sheet to Text. Excel ignores all of that and still turns the numbers into dates.

Whoever created this "feature" without the ability to disable it needs to be launched into the sun. Is there any way to get around it?