Dissatisfied with the final construction cleaning - am I being too picky?

Hey everyone! We just got back after our cleaning company finished their final construction cleaning. We had a fixed price through MyHammer. Final cleaning including windows - ready to move in. The company has 7 reviews there, all with 5 stars. I thought nothing could go wrong.

First, they showed up half an hour late - no big deal, we were there anyway. Then two of them came instead of three. One worker had called out. Also not a big deal, we had a fixed price. Later it turned out that the young man who was there with the boss was completely new to the company. You could tell from the result. :/

It already started with the kitchen. I said upfront that we have matte lacquered fronts and were told by the kitchen builders not to use microfiber cloths for cleaning under any circumstances. I passed that on and told the cleaning company upon arrival. When the company arrived in the living/dining area - the young man went over all the fronts first with a Swiffer. When I asked whether that wasn’t a microfiber cloth, they said "Swiffer doesn’t do any harm." I hope they were right about that. At that time, they had already finished upstairs; I went upstairs in socks to take a look, actually wanted to take some photos of the bathroom. The floor and wall tiles in the bathroom had been wiped, but there were still lots of stains everywhere. Not small spots but paint drops, partly 10cm long streaks of white paint, drops of tile adhesive or grout - I don’t really know what it was, I just know I didn’t want to see that in a finished cleaned bathroom anymore. I then asked if it was already finished upstairs, and when that was confirmed, I asked them to go over the floor again because there were still really many paint spots. The young man went upstairs, touched up the spots, apologized and said "that really wasn’t thorough enough." So far so good.

When everything was finally supposed to be finished, I went upstairs with the boss for a quick check - mainly stayed in the bathroom - and we scraped off more paint spots, tile adhesive/grout and whatever from the tiles together. But I don’t like what the boss delivered either. Yes, the windows look much better than before. BUT: No window is really clean. Not in any room. I can still go over every window with some kind of scraper and see if it’s dirt or really scratches on the window. So far, I have been able to remove everything with my fingernail, so just cleaning errors up to now. Is that being too picky? I mean, that is exactly why I commissioned a final construction cleaning. So that I can later judge whether the windows are ok or not.

Other things I don’t like:

[*]Cleaning/washing out all cabinets in the kitchen was explicitly part of the offer, since it was supposed to be ready to move in afterward. In the kitchen, the young man went inside the drawers once with the Swiffer. I opened 2 display cabinets, there was still wood dust from sawing/drilling at the bottom. The drawers in the island area are full of water spots/splashes at the front. These were NOT there before the cleaning company came. You could say the kitchen looks worse afterward than before. :/ At the final walk-through, I pointed out that the baseboard (at the bottom near the floor) was still full of sawdust. That was supposed to be fixed, but when they left the lot, the dust was still there.
[*]Vinyl floors were wiped but also look less appealing visually than before cleaning. I don’t know how, but when you come up the stairs now everything is full of streaks/smudged somehow.
[*]Despite wet mopping, there were still "piles" of crumbs/dust/dirt upstairs.
[*]Still paint spots on the stair railings
[*]Front door - black spot on the white door frame, no idea how that can be overlooked
[*]In the hallway, my shoes and the boss’s shoes were standing because we went through together wearing socks upstairs - the young man just wiped around them. Seriously?!
[*]All belt winders still full of paint/plaster
[*]Window frames still many with plaster/paint on the edges

I could go on forever with the list like this. Roughly you can say: It’s just not properly clean.

Am I expecting too much? Is a final construction cleaning only for the rough stuff, even if “ready to move in” is stated in the offer? I’ll attach some pictures, but only as examples. This is what it looked like after they had already left, so "finished".

Have you already paid? Unfortunately, I have found that on MyHammer it's often only the craftsmen who are so bad that they can't get a job on the open market. I wouldn't be satisfied with the result either. How much does something like that cost? But what can you do? Refuse to pay or demand the money back, you'll have to clean again yourself anyway.

That's why we did it ourselves... I didn't want anyone touching my new black kitchen front... besides, it was only when cleaning the kitchen that I noticed everything that was wrong with it, so I had to complain... Instead of that, I had the old apartment cleaned for the money, because I didn't have the patience for that as well, and it didn't matter there anyway... although I must say it was really thoroughly cleaned.... You probably had a bit of bad luck there too... how much was the whole thing supposed to cost?

Have you already paid? Unfortunately, I have experienced that on MyHammer often only craftsmen gather who are so bad that they can't get a job on the open market. I wouldn't be satisfied with the result either. How much does something like that cost? But what can you do? Refuse to pay or demand the money back, you still have to clean yourself afterward.

I haven't paid yet, the invoice is coming by mail. I have to admit, it wasn't expensive. 420€ including travel. Other offers were around the same range. I actually chose the provider with the best ratings. So far flawless 5 stars and 100% recommendation. I can't understand that. But I can't just refuse to pay, can I? I mean, I confirmed to them that they completed their work. They basically did – just not thoroughly. For example, the front door was cleaned, I saw that. It just wasn't clean afterward.

Oh man, weren't you afraid that they would ruin the new door or the kitchen??

Oh man, weren’t you afraid that they would ruin your new door or the kitchen??

When I hired them, no - see the reviews. When they started on site, I got a bit panicky, yes. I also stood next to them most of the time while they were in the kitchen.