They won't go by that (removal of the little date dots) unless you have the receipt to go with that date. They know with the round date stickers that most people aren't going to go to the trouble to counterfit them. As a matter of fact when I went back recently to Costco to return a battery that had gone belly up (I had purchased it about 39 mo. before for My DIL's car), they just asked for the name and immediately looked up all the information in the computer. Didn't even have to give them any other paperwork (Had put the receipt in the glove box in an envelope marked as such and My son could find no sign of it!) An awful lot of the battery "resellers" have the date dot put on the battery any more by the manufacturers