Disappointed

js473 wrote: I'm still a young photographer in the learning

Yes, that is obvious to us all

but one thing i can tell you is that this lens has been by far the worst i ave ever used.

Its call a "Super-Zoom" for a reason. You gain increase focal range by sacrificing IQ, AF speed, etc...

-It has major issue focusing in low light, even sometimes during the day and 90% of the time the lens forever hunts just trying to acquire focus when zoomed in anywhere from 80 and upwards

Again, its a "Super-Zoom". That means it will have a horrible T-STOP (light transmission) due to numerous inner lens element blocking light transmission. Less light = more AF hunt. This should be obvious.

-Picture quality is some what soft through out the range but thats to be expected from long range lens

Yes, like you say, its expected to be poor

-It suffers from zoom creep (zoom right in to 200mm point your lens upwards and just watch it slide back down on its own, zoom out to 18mm and point downwards and watch the lens barrel extend)

Can't be help. When you extending the lens that far from the body with a heavy front lens element, you will get zoom creep. This is call physics.

-Serious vignetting

What do you expect? Having that many inner lens element compromising optical transmission, you have less light and you will get "serious vignetting". All super-zoom suffer from this.

Canon 18-200mm IS USM is a super-zoom.  As such, what do you expect?

• Do you blame a DOG for barking?
• Do you blame a CAT for purring?

These are the nature of the beast, and for a Super-Zoom, slow AF, severe vignetting, and zoom creep are its nature.

If you want Great IQ, shoot PRIME!  A Single Focal Length lens that is optimized for IQ by sacrificing zoom range.  There is a reason why many of us (serious photogpaher) do not even consider buying a Super-Zoom.