I *always* seem to spend time haring around like the proverbial blus arsed fly prior to an audition, because my sense of direction is generally so poor that even with an A - Z in hand, I end up walking in the worng direction. But I'm never late - I just have to set off five hours early.
I did do an audition once, where I had been invited in by an old friend who was the director, and who had especially asked for me to read for a part. So I got to the auditions, and my immediate feeling was that I should let someone know I had turned up, as the director wanted to see me specifically. So, I tried to say (in the nicest possible way) to the guy who was 'supervising' the auditionees 'Hi, if you could just pass on to the director the fact that I've turned up when you've got a minute'. I thought I was being fairly discreet about this, but he seemed a little put out that I should have the nerve to not just take a seat and wait my turn like everyone else.
Now, as far as it went, the audition itself was fine - as soon as I got in the room, there was my friend the director, and he was, as I had expected him to be, suitably happy to see that I'd followed up his call, and was willing to audition for him.
The irony was that when I was cast, on the first day of rehearsal, I discovered that another of the guys in the cast was none other than the aggrieved supervisor I'd had the run in with! As it turned out, he was actually a really nice bloke, and we got on as performers fantastically. But I can only conclude that he'd been cast at the time I was auditioning, and took offense at the idea that I was 'presuming' on his territory. Moral of the story: be careful who you talk to at the audition (and how you talk to them), I suppose!