Soft photos are standard

I thought I was getting a great camera with the 10D. I was new to digital photography when I got the camera. I thought that was the way digital photos were supposed to look. But after using the camera extensively with various lenses, and doing a lot of investigating, I realized that I didn't get my monies worth. Most photos are soft or have washed out colors, especially photos taken with my 70-200 2.8 lens at full zoom. Every now and then I'll get lucky and get one or two shots that I feel good about. I'm hoping there is some way to fix the problem. Oh, yeah some times the spot focusing point is not where the camera tells you it is.