Please make sure your python or python3 can see xlrd installation. I had a situation where python3.5 and python3.7 were installed in two different locations. While xlrd was installed with python3.5, I was using python3 (from python3.7 dir) to run my script and got the same error reported above. When I used the correct python (viz. python3.5 dir) to run my script, I was able to read the excel spread sheet without a problem.