Rowan -

Your friend was just trying to "one-up" you. There have been a number of CRTs advertised as "flat screen CRT" models, and they're still around; but in casual conversation today "flat screen," or "flat panel," or "flat monitor," without additional qualification, is used by virtually all sellers and most shoppers to mean "anything NOT a CRT." That actually includes about four different kinds of monitors, but generally is taken to mean either a plasma or liquid crystal pixel display. (And most don't refer to a liquid crystal pixel display as an "LCD," since that too commonly refers to something like you'd see on a calculator, not a monitor. Both LQ and LX are used, but neither is really "standard.")

Now I can see someone ordering a "flat monitor" and getting a TV display instead of a computer display, maybe even on purpose.

It does depend on where one shops, of course, and in what language. All one really has to do usually is check the shipping weight, but anyone who'd pay the price without at least looking at the picture probably deserves what comes in the box.

John