inaccurate kml coordinates in spreadsheet

[GoogleEarthExplorer]

I have some old .kmz files that I wanted to use to generate new
placemarks from a spreadsheet which I have on Google docs. I found
somewhere that told me to save the folder of those placemarks as
a .kml file and then change the extension to .xml and then I could
open it with Excel. I did this and was delighted to find all the
names and coordinates in their decimal form (which the spreadsheet I
am using requires) in perfect order. I pasted some test locations and
their coordinates into the Google Spreadsheet and then published and
went to Google Earth to check it out. I still had the original
placemarks displaying that I had used to generate the coordinates for
the new placemarks and found that they were anywhere from 400 to 4000
feet of in random directions. At first I thought it was because the
cells weren't displaying all the places after the decimal, so I fixed
that but it had no effect.

Does anyone know why this happens or what I can do?